


Whumptober 2020

by ceraxxxx



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Bad At Tagging, I'm nervous, Whump, Whumptober 2020, aaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, okay now afterwards i gotta admit that there is more hurt than comfort, tmnt 2003
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:41:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 31,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26757448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceraxxxx/pseuds/ceraxxxx
Summary: I did a thing.A collection of short stories for Whumptober. More details at the beginning of each of them.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 55





	1. Let's Hang Out Sometime + Running Out Of Time

**Author's Note:**

> **A/N:** ~~Asdfghjkl for some reason I'm feeling more nervous now than when I posted my previous fics.~~
> 
> Hi. This is my first time participating in Whumptober. I've been loving it for years now, and this year I decided that I would actually give it a try. Whether I would have had time is debatable, but here I am.
> 
> Some general things regarding what you're about to read:
> 
> \- everything is based on the 2003-series  
> \- this is a collection of individual stories, each based on the day's prompt  
> \- some of the prompts have been combined, and some stories even connect, but I will let you know when that happens at the beginning  
> \- a lot of these are more like scenarios than proper fics that may or may not evolve into full stories  
> \- the lengths of the stories vary a lot (from 357 to 2 204 words (this might change, I still have a lot of wips))  
> \- each story has little bit more info at the beginning
> 
> One last thing before the actual thing. As usual, a huge thank you to Jay, my amazing friend who once again outdid herself as she read through _all_ of these, helping me make these ten times better than they would be without her. I hope you know that I appreciate it more and more each time.
> 
> That's it I think, hope you'll enjoy what you're about to read.

1 - LET’S HANG OUT SOMETIME + 4 RUNNING OUT OF TIME  
(waking up restrained | shackled | **hanging** ) + (caged | buried alive | **collapsed building** )

Raphael-centric  
1 420 words

\---

_“I hate all of ya! Just leave me alone already, I don't need any of ya!”_

That was only the last thing Raphael had yelled at his brother’s before he had left the lair. Thinking back, that could have been one of their biggest fights ever, but to be honest Raph couldn’t even properly remember what it had been about.

All he knew was that all parties had received their fair share of yelling and hurt feelings.

God his leg was hurting.

Of course Raph was already regretting some of the things he had said. _Some_ , not all. Or at least the intensity which he had said them with. At that moment he really had hated all of them. Leo, Donnie, Mikey. And that’s why Raph had left, to both get away from them, to cool down.

He had gone exploring the abandoned buildings by the edge of the town alone.

And then everything had backfired.

How long could he actually stand this? Raph’s leg was _killing_ him, he couldn’t remember experiencing this much pain ever before.

All the blood that was engorging to Raph’s head was making his head throb uncomfortably. How long had he been hanging there upside down already?

Raph looked around him. It wasn’t like he was expecting to see a clock somewhere or anything, but _some_ indication of the time would have been fine. Had it been that dark outside before? He hadn’t really noticed. Raph had no idea when he had entered this particular building.

Or when it had collapsed while he was on the top floor.

It must have been mere minutes, but it felt like forever since his fall had been cut off by the wires that were still wrapped around his leg. Those wires were both the reason why he was still alive, and why he was in so much pain. Somehow his leg had gotten injured by the sudden yank and the weight it had to keep holding up.

There was no way Raph would get out of this situation on his own. He was too high up, and if he tried to swing his body to reach the wires, the pain in his leg would almost certainly make him pass out.

Raph glanced back up - or was it down? - towards the ground, where he could see the broken pieces of his Shell Cell. He hadn’t even realised that it had fallen down before it had been too late. That meant there was really no way to call for help either.

He really needed his brothers.

When would Raph’s brothers forgive him and come to look for him? Would it be too late by then?

_Would_ they even forgive him?

Raph swallowed. He really hoped that he had apologized for how he had acted. But maybe it was too late now.

The building around him was still crumbling down, piece by piece. It was only a matter of time before he would fall the rest of the way. Raph tried to keep it in mind that he was a turtle, his shell would be able to take a lot of the damage.

But he couldn’t bring his hopes up.

After all, a tough shell wouldn’t save him if he fell down head first on the concrete below him.

A chunk of debris hit Raph on its way down and made him swing around. He hissed in pain, his leg really didn’t like that. The movement probably wasn’t good for the wires holding him up in the air either, Raph was afraid that if they moved around enough they would just fall down or get untangled from his leg.

What a pitiful ending this would be. Raph had always thought that he would go down in a battle, holding his sai until the very end, not… this.

But in a way, he had accepted it already.

He was out of hope.

He tried to imagine what his brothers would say when they finally found his corpse. Maybe they would cry. Maybe they would say he had deserved it. Maybe-

“Raphael?”

Oh great. Was all the blood in his head making him hallucinate? He could have sworn he had heard Don’s voice. But there was no way that he would _actually_ be there-

“Raphie boy? Could you answer us already, dude?”

No. That was definitely Mikey. The _real_ Mikey. What- were they really here?

“Up here!” Raph yelled, just in case. _If_ they really were here…

“Raph?” That was Leo’s voice now. “You’re somewhere around here?”

“No, my voice just carried over from the other side of the city! Of _course_ I’m here!” Raph knew he shouldn’t be sassy now. But he couldn’t help it.

A couple of minutes later, through all the holes that used to be the floors below him, he was able to see the three other turtles appear on the ground floor, directly underneath Raph.

“Up here!” he yelled again since they didn’t seem to realise where exactly his voice had come from.

“Oh!” Mikey exclaimed once they all had finally looked up. “Raph, you decided to become a piñata?”

“Hardy har har,” Raph replied, not amused by the joke, but happier than ever to actually see them all. “Just help me down from here already! Ya can use the stairs, I think they’re still up!”

Raph watched as the others disappeared from his line of sight, and just moments later appeared on the floor where they could most easily reach the hanging turtle.

“Ya better hurry, ain’t trustin’ this buildin’ at all,” Raph told the others. “Hope ye know how to get me down.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got what we need,” Don reassured, and took a long rope out of his bag. “Hang onto this, we’ll pull you to safety.”

Working together, it didn’t take them long to pull Raph back to solid ground and cut off the wires. Suddenly being upright again made Rap’s head spin, so he remained seated for a short moment, forehead pressed to the knee of his uninjured leg.

“My dudes, I don’t know about you, but I’m not feeling like being crushed today, so I suggest we get a move on right about now,” Mikey said the second that Raph lifted his head up again. Raph himself was trying his hardest to stand up, but was stumbling both because of his head and his leg.

“Sure, but I can’t walk, my leg’s busted,” he explained. He had hardly gotten the words out when Leo was already there to hold Raph up.

“You can lean on me,” he said briefly, “let’s go.”

Their timing was as poor as always. They did manage to get out, but only a few minutes before the building behind them completely collapsed.

“That was close!” Mikey mused, looking at the destruction. “Good thing we found you when we did.”

“How did ya even know where to look for me?” Raph questioned. _And why?_ echoed in his head, but he decided it was not the time for that quite just yet.

“The tracker on your Shell Cell stopped working all of a sudden,” Don explained as the group moved forward again. “Figured that could mean you were in trouble, so I pulled up the last location that it had broadcasted from and it brought us here.”

“...Right. Forgot that ya had put those in there.”

“Clearly a good thing he did,” Leo commented briefly.

“Didn’t think ya would come to find me,” Raph admitted before he was able to bite his tongue. The confession clearly took the others by surprise, because they all stopped and turned to look at him.

“Why would you think that?” Don asked, confused.

“‘Cause of all the things I said before I left. I know I… I shouldn’t…” He had never been good with apologies. Not even now, even if that was all he wanted to say right now.

“What, you thought we would abandon you after an argument?” Leo inquired, sounding almost amusing as he started to walk again, still letting Raph to but as much weight on him as necessary. “We’re family. And we know you’re sorry. It’s going to require a lot more than that for us to just leave you in trouble.”

“Yeah, you’re not gonna get rid of us that easily!” Mikey teased as well.

Raph let their words sink in for a while before he smiled, just a little. Of course. They were his brothers, they would stick together.

After all, they really all needed each other.


	2. In The Hands Of The Enemy

2 - IN THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY  
**“pick who dies”** | collars | kidnapped

Leonardo-centric  
1 103 words

\---

“I’ll make this really easy for you,” Hun said and pointed towards the screens in front of Leonardo. “Pick the one who dies. The rest of you _freaks_ will get to walk out of here in one piece.”

Leo couldn’t believe that he was actually in this situation. Captured, tied up in a chair, staring at the three screens, each showing one of his brothers. And now he was supposed to choose which one of them would _die_?

“I refuse to,” he answered bluntly. There was no way he would choose one. He wasn’t willing to sacrifice anyone for this. He would find another way out, he could come up with some plan. And then they would all head back home in one piece, tell Master Splinter where they had been the whole night, but conveniently forget to mention how close of a call it had actually been once again.

They didn’t want their father to worry too much.

Hun grinned widely.

“Is that your final answer? Because if it is, I will just have them _all_ executed right here and now.” Hun’s hand moved closer to a radiophone that he would use to give the killing order to his men. The simple motion filled Leo with panic.

“NO!” he yelled. “No, I- let me think. I’ll choose someone.”

Hun’s grin spread even more, and he moved his hand further away from the radio again.

“As you wish, I’m in no rush.”

Leo looked back at the screens, mind full of hazy tread. He didn’t want anyone to die, but... wasn’t just _one_ dying better than everyone dying? 

On the first screen he could see Raphael, also tied up with a gun pointed at his head. Yet, his face was full of defiance. His expression was fierce, like he wouldn’t go down without a fight, but Leo knew better. Raph was scared. He knew that it would be hard to get out of this situation.

Even if Leo and Raph didn’t always see eye to eye, Leo also knew that there was no way he would be able to pick Raph. He knew that he could always trust on Raph no matter what, and he knew that Raph trusted him just as much. Leo couldn’t betray that trust.

On the second screen was Michelangelo, in a similar predicament as Raph. He looked a bit nervous, but was able to hide it behind his constant blabbering. Leo had no idea what he was talking about, but he hoped that the person holding the gun wouldn’t get too annoyed.

So naive, yet so talented Mikey. So full of _potential_ and _life_. There was something great waiting for him in the future, Leo was sure of that. He couldn’t just rob his future like this. He couldn’t choose Mikey to be the one to die.

Last screen was showing Donatello. He was the only one that looked clearly scared, even if he too was trying to keep it in control. His eyes kept darting around the room, most likely trying to think of a way to get out of the situation.

Donnie was obviously smarter than all the rest of them combined. It was basically all thanks to him that they had a safe home, ways to move around, that they got access to good enough medical treatment after a rough fight… Would this be how Leo thanked him for all his hard work, killing him? That was never going to happen.

Leo’s eyes were now jumping between all of them again. How could he ever decide? They were his brothers. He loved them all, they meant more to him than anything else. How would he ever be able to keep on living, knowing that his brother’s blood was on _his_ hands?

He could not choose one.

But he could not let all of them die either.

He was at loss, hopeless. Was there anything he could do?

“You said… If one dies, the rest will be able to return home, unharmed?” Leo asked Hun quietly, making sure that he had understood correctly.

“Four freaks arrived, and three will leave. You have my word,” Hun answered simply.

“How can I trust you’ll keep your word?”

“If it would be up to me, none of you would leave now that I have you in my hands,” Hun said, grimacing just a little bit. “But it isn’t. There’s something bigger behind this, and unfortunately, I have to follow the plan if I don’t want to end up like our good friend Baxter Stockman.”

Leo knew that Hun had a point. While he didn’t like the sound of this bigger plan, he knew that it meant that the man would do exactly as he had said, just this once. Suddenly Leo’s mouth felt dry.

“I’ve made my decision then,” he was able to stutter out. Hun raised his eyebrows, but soon looked thrilled.

“That was faster than I thought. But do tell me, who have you chosen?”

“Myself.”

That was an answer Hun hadn’t been expecting.

“Yourself?”

“Kill me. And the others will walk out of here.”

He didn’t want to do it, but it was the only way the others would remain unharmed. Leo’s body felt weirdly numb. He wasn’t sure if it was because he was afraid of dying, the overwhelming wave of sadness that was drowning him, the adrenaline rushing through his body, or some weird mixture of them all. The fourth option sounded like the correct one.

Oh, how he wished that things wouldn’t have to be like this. But he couldn’t kill Raph. He couldn’t kill Mikey. He couldn’t kill Don.

He simply had no other choice.

He just hoped that his family would understand.

Hun had recovered from his confusion, and was grinning once again. He reached for a gun that Leo hadn’t even noticed was lying on the desk. The barrel was directed straight towards his head, and the safety was clicked off.

It all happened so much faster than Leo had expected.

“A fine choice,” Hun rejoiced, before firing the gun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** That's it for today, next one will be up tomorrow!


	3. My Way Or The Highway + Psych 101

3 - MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY + 11 PSYCH 10  
**manhandled** | forced to their knees | held at gunpoint + **defiance** | struggling | crying

Michelangelo-centric  
449 words

\---

“Hurry up, we don’t have all day,” said the Purple Dragon forcing Michelangelo to move forward.

“But I’m having so much fun on this stroll of ours, I really don’t- Ow!” The Dragon had kicked Mikey’s leg to make him shut up. “Hey! That hurt!”

“There will be plenty more if you don’t get moving already!”

Mike just had to keep stumbling forward. He didn’t really know where they were going, but what he _did_ know was that it would be better for his general well-being to waste as much of their time as possible.

“Dude, I _am_ moving! Maybe you have heard that totally inaccurate myth that turtles are slow, but look at me, I’m as speedy as-”

“Oh shut up already,” groaned the other Dragon who was walking in front of Mikey. “You’re starting to really piss me off.”

“My overwhelming charminess hasn’t really hit you yet, huh? Don’t worry, most people learn to love me, maybe by the end of this you’ll be my new bestie! Tell me bestie, what’s your favorite color? Is it orange? You tease, just tell me already! Ooh, maybe it’s green!”

Even when the Dragon didn’t answer him, Mikey could see that his shoulders tensed. Good, maybe if he distracted him enough, he would be able to fight his way out of this situation.

Lucky for him, blabbering on and on about nonsense was one of his special skills.

“Speaking of colors, I’ve been wondering, why are you guys _Purple_ Dragons? Is purple like, Hun’s favorite color? Why isn’t it red? The tattoo looks more like dark red than purple in my opinion. Gotta admit, purple’s cooler than red though. Like, think about my bros, Donnie is definitely _way_ cooler than Raph.” Mike raised his voice just a little towards the end, just in case Raphael would be somewhere nearby following and listening to the conversation.

No such luck though. 

Maybe he should just get out of this situation on his own.

“Last warning,” the Dragon behind Mike gnarled. “Just keep walking forward and stay quiet.”

“What if I just don’t wanna though?” Mikey challenged and stopped altogether. “This is getting really boring to be honest, you guys just keep telling me what to do. I’ll give the orders now! Let’s start with ‘give me back my chucks’, and then I’ll kick your butts like we always do-”

He really hadn’t expected the push of the Dragon to be so hard.

Mikey immediately lost his balance and fell on the ground, and before he really even knew it, both of the Dragons were around him, looking annoyed beyond belief.

“Maybe this will teach you _shut up_ whenever you are told to.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** In my head this takes place a little bit before yesterday's story. Not "officially", but wanted to give some sort of context.
> 
> Just a heads up, there will be no update tomorrow, I already combined that prompt with the first one. So the next one will be here on the 5th, hope to see you then!


	4. Where Do You Think You're Going?

5 - WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?  
 **on the run** | failed escape | rescue

Donatello-centric  
1 396 words

\---

Donatello had no idea how he had gotten ambushed like that. One second he had been driving back home from one of his attempts to find reusable items from the junkyard, and the next the Battle Shell had gotten completely surrounded by the Foot.

He had barely managed to escape.

And now Don was running on the rooftops of New York, trying his hardest to get rid of the ninjas that were still chasing him. He didn’t know where he could go, there were so many after him that he couldn’t fight them all off. Trying to go back to the sewers would be a risk he wasn’t willing to take since there was a chance that the Foot would find where their lair was. He couldn’t go to Casey or April either, or seek refuge from some stranger’s apartment. Too big of a chance of there being casualties, or him being seen.

For now, he would just have to keep running.

How had they found him? Why were they after Don in the first place? Had they just been waiting for any sign of the turtles, and the first one just happened to be from Don? How long had they been following him? Was it possible that… could they have followed him ever since he left home?

Don shook his head. No. There was no way that could be the case. Someone would have called him if they had been attacked, and Don had had his phone with him at all times, he would have heard it-

_The phone._

Of course! He could try to call for help! Why hadn’t he thought about that sooner?

Don looked over his shoulder. The Foot was just far away enough that he would have time for a quick call. He grabbed his phone, chose Leo’s number from the speed dial and raised the Shell Cell to his ear.

The phone only rang twice before Leo answered.

_“Hey Donnie, need some help carrying stuff?”_ the leader asked in a relaxed tone.

“Help? Yes. Carrying stuff? No,” Don managed to pant to the phone, not daring to stop for even a second. It seemed like Leo understood that something was going on, because the next time he spoke he sounded much more tense.

_“What’s wrong?”_

“I got ambushed,” Don explained. “I was on my way home when the Foot got to me.”

_“Got to you? Don, have you been captured?”_

“No, no I’m still running away but… There’s a lot of them after me. I really, really need some help.” Don glanced behind him again. Were his hunters gaining on him, or was he just imagining it?

_“Where are you? We’ll be there as soon as we can.”_ Don could hear the voices of Raphael and Michelangelo in the background, Leo had most likely waved them to come to him.

“Just… running. I can see the harbor to my left, I can try to get closer to it.”

_“Do that, and hide if you can. We’re coming.”_

“WAIT!” Don yelled to the phone, but it was too late already, Leo was gone. Shell, he had wanted to tell them to be careful, that they would probably be followed as well. Don would just have to hope that there were no members of Foot lurking nearby their home-

Wait.

What if… what if this was all just a trap?

The thought hadn’t even crossed Don’s mind before now. What if this had been the Foot’s plan all along? Get one of the turtles trapped, wait for them to call backup and then find the location of their home when they were leaving?

Had he just doomed them all by asking for help?

Heart thumping, Don tried to call Leo again, but this time his older brother didn’t answer. It really _was_ too late. All that Don could do was to find a good place to hide and hope for the best. So… where could he go?

He had made his way to the harbor, hoping that there would be more places to hide. By jumping down from the rooftop, close enough to the ground not to injure himself, he was able to break the line of sight between him and the Foot. It would give him only a few minutes, two at tops, but it should still be enough to find a decent place to hide.

Don ran towards the shipping containers he spotted on his left while trying to find a place there where he could stay. He had no luck though - the containers were all locked, and just climbing on the top of them wouldn’t have given Don enough cover.

Next he ran towards a small building behind the containers, probably some sort of office, and was relieved to find that the door was unlocked. He snuck inside, making sure to close the door silently behind him. He finally stopped for a few seconds to take a couple of deep breaths, in hopes to calm both his breathing and his nerves. He noticed a lock on the door, maybe he could use that to ensure he stayed safe?

But he could already hear footsteps outside the building. There was no time for any locks.

Avoiding all the windows, Don moved inside the building, trying to find the best spot that he could hide in. Underneath the desk? In some dark corner? Inside a closet?

Don hadn’t even had time to decide when he heard voices from the room next to him.

It didn’t sound like the Foot, which only made the situation much worse. Judging by the sounds, there were only three people inside, and if they had indeed been members of the Foot, Don would have easily taken them all down and stayed inside the building. But these were total strangers - Don could not show himself to them, they didn’t know that giant mutant turtles existed and it would be much, much better to keep it that way.

Don would have to go back outside.

He was feeling nervous again, but he still headed, silently, to the door he had used before and opened it, just a little bit, so he was able to see if the coast was clear. No Foot ninjas in sight. Good, this was his chance.

He snuck out, and went back towards the shipping containers. They would work out as a temporary hideout until he could figure out a better one, although moving around wouldn’t be easy with the Foot combing through the whole harbor. Maybe Don wouldn’t have to hide for too long. 

How long had it been since he made the phone call? It shouldn’t take too long to get from the lair to here. Unless the others had been attacked as well. Don still couldn’t believe that he had been so stupid, of course this whole thing was a trap, how-

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Don’s heart skipped a beat. He turned around, grabbing his bō, ready to attack if necessary. The Foot had found him. A couple dozen of them actually.

There was no way he would be able to fight all of them off on his own, but he couldn’t just surrender himself to them either. He would have to do whatever he could to stay out of their hands.

Don was about to attack, when he heard three soft thuds behind him.

“Sorry it took us so long, Donnie,” a voice said. Don turned around, only to see his brothers, weapons ready for action. It had been Raphael who spoke, spinning one of his sai in his hand with an amazing speed. “Had to take a detour, just in case.”

“So the lair-” Don tried to ask, but was cut off by Michelangelo.

“As safe as always! They have no idea where we came from, we were like ninjas!”

“Mike…”

“Oh shush Raphie, being a ninja doesn’t take away your rights to use idioms about ninjas!”

Don felt immensely relieved. The backup had arrived, and most importantly, the lair was still safe. Even if this whole setup had been a trap, it had failed. Suddenly gaining back all the confidence he hadn’t even realised he had lost, Don turned back towards the Foot, now really ready for the fight.

Even the whole army of Foot ninjas would have nothing against four ninja turtles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** Another one down, next one will be up tomorrow!


	5. Please...

6 - PLEASE...  
“get it out” | no more | **“stop, please”**

Master Splinter-centric  
805 words  
Takes place immediately after S1E11 _The Shredder Strikes pt. 2_

\---

Master Splinter had been right to assume the absolute worst when he had found the turtles missing earlier that night. He had been terrified, and finding his sons wandering on the streets of New York, injured and separated from each other, hadn’t helped at all.

In his opinion, the smacks had been completely justified. Even if the emotions he had been filled with - anger, fear, and willingness for revenge - might have made him overreact just a little bit.

And when he had been observing the fight, when the Shredder had raised his hand to deliver the final blow to the defeated turtles, Splinter had used those overwhelming feelings as fuel to defeat the Shredder, for once and for all. The severity of the situation had only hit him while they were all heading back home. The raging feelings from before, all the fiery rage and paralyzing fear, had disappeared in an instant and gotten replaced by ever growing anxiety and nagging worry.

History had almost repeated itself, and Splinter felt sure that if the turtles had perished like his Master Yoshi did, he wouldn’t have been able to recover from it.

And that is why, when Donatello had sat him down on a stool, Splinter had wanted to do nothing more than to make sure that his sons were alright, then retreat to his room to meditate and try his hardest to forget that this day ever happened.

“Do not worry about me,” the rat had insisted immediately and tried to stand up. “I have no injuries.”

He wasn’t lying. Shredder hadn’t managed to land a single hit on him. He wasn’t physically hurt.

“Let me just double check, okay?” Don said, taking a flashlight and directing it to Splinter’s eyes. “It shouldn’t take too long.”

Splinter fought against his initial urge to turn away from the light, knowing more than well that it would just make the process last longer than necessary.

“Your brothers need medical attention more than I do,” he tried to argue, but Don was having none of it.

“And I will get to them right after I’m done with you. No offense, sensei, but you’re not as young as you used to be, I’d much rather make sure that you are okay first.”

“Are you not worried about your brothers?” Splinter asked, looking at Don intensely. The turtle was already putting the flashlight away, but stopped in the middle of the movement and turned to face his father again, looking almost offended by the question.

“Of course I am! But-”

“In that case, you should go to attend them instead.”

“But I’m worried about you too,” Don admitted, still not moving an inch from his seat. “And I know the others must be too, so it would be better if I had some good news the next time I talk to them.”

“There are no bad news to tell, I have no injuries.”

“Which means this should be quick anyway. Just let me-” Don had turned back towards the table where he kept his necessary equipment on, but was stopped when a soft hand was placed on his forearm. He turned to face his father once again.

“Donatello, my son, _please_ …” Splinter finally allowed all of the desperation of a worrying father to seep into his voice. “Stop.”

The two sat there for a moment, just looking at each other, until Don sighed and turned back towards the table, this time to gather his things together.

“You are one hundred percent sure that you are feeling… well, relatively okay? No bleeding wounds or broken bones?”

“Nothing of that sort,” Splinter assured. There was nothing that Don could do to help him in this situation. But he had seen the hits his sons had received, hits that had been strong enough to even damage the battlefield, and definitely strong enough to cause serious injuries.

It wasn’t him who needed the help right now.

“...Fine,” Don said, standing up from his chair, holding everything he needed for treating his brothers. “But you can be sure, I _will_ take a closer look at you as well.”

“I would not expect anything less.”

Splinter watched as Don walked to the other turtles, and sighed as well. Finally. Right now he wanted nothing more than to be absolutely sure that everyone was in good condition. 

He was sure that he would remember this night for the rest of his life. Not only had this been one of the first times he had fought alongside his sons, he had had to protect them from the one person he had wished would have _never_ gotten anywhere _near_ the turtles. But he had defeated that _monster_. They would all be safe now.

Although, Master Splinter had a sinking feeling that maybe he shouldn’t celebrate their victory quite yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** BAM! Here's another one! Posting the next one tomorrow!


	6. I've Got You

7 - I'VE GOT YOU  
support | **carrying** | enemy to caretaker

Michelangelo and Leonardo centric  
783 words  
Connects to prompt number 9

\---

“Hey, are you finally awake?” The slight movement on his back had gotten Michelangelo’s attention. He had been carrying unconscious Leonardo for what must have been an hour at this point, in the sewers, in complete silence.

“Hrmh?” a groggy voice answered softly, and Mikey was finally able to sigh in relief.

“Welcome back to the world of the living, my good dude. Don’t move though, you took quite a hit.” The silence continued after Mike’s sentence for a couple of minutes as Leo was still trying to wake up.

“Did we… win?” Leo finally asked. Mike couldn’t believe that this was actually the first thing the other turtle would ask, but he supposed his brother just wanted to know what exactly was going on.

“Not quite,” the younger ninja answered hesitantly. “We had to flee- no, do tactical retreat, like Raph would insist.”

“Where… others?” Now _that_ sounded more like what Leo would ask.

“We had to split up,” Mikey admitted, knowing that Leo wouldn’t necessarily be happy with that answer. “They were coming after us, you were hurt and we had to get you outta there, so Raph and Don caused a distraction while I slipped away with you.”

He had barely finished the sentence before Leo was already attempting to jump down and get back to his own feet.

“We… need to go back… help…”

But the leader was still too weak because of the injuries he had obtained and the lingering effects of unconsciousness, which made it easy for Mike to keep him where he was. Maybe even a little too easy for Mikey’s liking.

“They are big turtles, they can take care of themselves! C’mon now, the sooner we get you home the better.”

It seemed like Leo wasn’t really listening anymore. It wasn’t easy, but by gathering all of his strength, Leo was able to lift himself off of Michelangelo’s shell and get to the ground. Only his balance wasn’t quite there yet, and if Mike hadn’t been there to catch Leo, he would have fallen down completely.

“Seriously! Leo, we need to keep moving! There’s no reason to go back, Donnie’s there with Raph, the brain with the brawn, they are the perfect combo! But they won’t be able to give us an endless amount of time, so hop back on my shell and we’ll be in the lair in no time.”

Mikey tried to get Leo to properly look at him, but his older brother was too focused on trying to regain his footing. He was panting heavily, holding on to Mike like his life was depending on it. He must have been pretty out of it still - he looked utterly confused.

Mikey really, _really_ didn’t like seeing Leo like this.

The younger turtle sighed heavily.

“Leo, dude, I know you’re worried. I’m… kinda worried too, but look at you! You can’t fight in this condition, we can’t go back there now or otherwise you-” Mikey didn’t want to finish the sentence. Not aloud, not in his mind. He simply refused to even consider that Leo could… Mikey shook his head, and continued.

“So here’s what we’re gonna do. We’ll continue walking and get you home, and once you have been taken care of, I’ll call them. I’ll call them, tell them we made it, and then they’ll appraise me for being the greatest hero ever. Oooor they’ll be too busy running awa- no, _retreating_ since they’ll know there’s no need for further stalling. But when they _do_ get home they’ll definitely be appraising me. Unless Donnie is going to get mad at me because I did something wrong while taking care of you... But see, we actually planned this out! We can do plans even without your help! ...At least sometimes.”

At last, Leo looked at Mikey, most of the hazy confusion finally slipping away. Mikey could see him slowly connecting the dots in his mind, and he wanted to give Leo just as much time as he needed.

“...It’s weird when you are the one making the most sense in a situation,” Leo finally said, quietly. He was gaining some more balance, meaning he didn’t have to completely rely on Michelangelo for support anymore. The younger turtle couldn’t help but smile.

“Oh look at you, you must be feeling a lot better if you’re making fun of me already!”

Leo somehow managed to return the smile, but even that simple gesture, combined with standing up, seemed to be enough to tire him completely again. This time Mikey was ready, and there by Leo’s side when his legs gave out.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you bro,” Mikey said softly as the two kept moving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** This is the first one (and so far the only one) that connects to another story that I'll upload on the 9th. Another story will be up tomorrow though, stay tuned for that!
> 
> Also, I have no idea why the ending note from the first one appeared below this one, and I don't know how to get rid of it so it's just gonna exist there.


	7. Where Did Everybody Go?

8 - WHERE DID EVERYBODY GO?  
“don’t say goodbye” | abandoned | **isolation**

Raphael-centric  
357 words

\---

“Hey! Anyone hear me?” Raphael’s headset had been completely silent way longer than it should on a stealth mission like this where communication meant everything. He had no idea what could have happened, and it was enough to make him wonder if something had gone wrong.

_Shell._

He was in a vent, on his own, waiting for his cue, but how on Earth was he supposed to get the signal if there was no _connection_? Raph definitely wasn’t feeling patient enough to just wait, but at the same time he had no idea what he should actually do. Should he go back and hope that the others had retreated as well? Or move forward and assume that he was the only one with technical difficulties?

He wouldn’t be able to climb out of the vent before the coast was clear though. And he wouldn’t know that _without the signal_.

“Sheez…” he muttered on his own. The one time he agreed to a plan without giving anyone a hard time and this happens…

Nothing bad had happened though, right? Surely Raph would at that point at least heard some sort of an alarm from the inside of the building. A loud intercom announcement telling everyone within the hearing range that there were intruders.

...Unless the others had been surprised and taken down immediately.

…

That’s it. He was done waiting. He would get out this _goddamn_ vent and-

Raph was already moving when a static noise in his ears made him stop.

“ _...lo? Hey, can you all hear me again?_ ”

“Donnie? That you?” Wait, so it had been just a technical difficulty?

“ _Yeah, sorry, I think I accidentally turned off my headset and since the call was connected through me the line just went dead._ ” Don sounded apologetic. Good, he should be.

“ _Man, for a sec I thought that something had gone wrong_ ,” Mikey’s voice admitted, and Raph was glad to know that he wasn’t the only one who had overreacted.

“ _Should we continue then?_ ” Leo asked. Right. Back to the business now that the crisis was over.

“Yeah, I’m tired of all this waitin’. Let’s get goin’.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** A little bit shorter one today, sorry. But the next one will be up tomorrow!
> 
> It seems like the note from the first chapter is here to stay. Oh well.


	8. For The Greater Good

9 - FOR THE GREATER GOOD  
“take me instead” | **“run!”** | ritual sacrifice

Donatello and Raphael centric  
1 903 words  
Connects to 7, basically what is happening to Don and Raph during and after 7

\---

The plan had been going so well for so long.

But somehow it had changed so, so fast.

By this point it must have been over half an hour since Donatello and Raphael parted ways with Michelangelo and unconscious Leonardo. Half an hour filled with almost constant fighting with the Foot and multiple attempts to lure them to follow the two turtles. Every now and then Don and Raph even tried to infiltrate the Foot’s headquarters again, in hopes that just the two of them would be seen as a big enough threat for the Foot not to send a group after their brothers on the run.

Don and Raph could handle the waves of the Foot ninjas without much of a struggle. With Don’s smarts and Raph’s eagerness to fight the two of them were practically unstoppable.

But then the Mystics appeared in front of them for the second time that night.

Apparently the two turtles were getting too bothersome to handle. Or maybe the Foot had somehow managed to run out of ninjas worth sacrificing. It didn’t really matter though - the odds for them winning had just radically decreased. Two turtles fighting against beings that were able to control the elements themselves - Don and Raph were seriously disadvantaged.

“You think we can take them down?” Don asked nervously, tightening his hold on his bō. This would be the perfect time for Mikey to call. 

“...Sure we can,” Raph tried to assure, but Don could hear a doubtful undertone in his voice and swallowed. If Raph didn’t believe in their chances… Well…

They didn’t really have any other choice.

Surely the phone would ring any second now.

But seconds passed and turned into minutes. Minor cuts and bruises into more serious ones. The fight to waste time into the fight for their lives.

“Raph, I don’t have a good feeling about this!” Don yelled his confession as he blocked another attack from the Metal Mystic. 

“We ain’t bailin’ now!” Raph argued back, dodging a rock that had been thrown at his way. “Not gonna take the risk now that we’ve gotten this far!”

While he did have a point, Don also knew what Raph wasn’t willing to admit. Raph’s stubbornness and pride were standing on his way as well, preventing him from admitting that it was time to retreat, that they were losing. It didn’t help either that they didn’t know if Mikey and Leo were safe yet.

It would be hard for Don to convince Raph to abandon the fight.

Why hadn’t Mikey called yet? Had the two been followed after all? Had Mikey simply forgotten? Or maybe Leo-

_Ring. Ring._

Oh thank God.

“Mikey! You made it home yet?” Don asked the second he had been able to get to cover.

“ _Yeah, the coast is clear, we made it. So you drag your shells here as well._ ”

“Gladly!” Don had to dodge a ball of fire that had found his hiding spot. “We’ll leave immediately.”

Don snapped his Shell Cell shut and put it away again, barely avoiding a beam of water as he tried to locate his brother from the middle of all the chaos.

“Raph!” he yelled. “They made it!”

“Good to know!” the other turtle answered, but showed no signs of retreating, and was instead attacking the Fire Mystic with all his might.

“That means we can go! Let’s get moving!” Don tried, but this time he got no response. “Raphael!”

Don didn’t exactly know what had gotten into Raph at that moment, and afterwards he really hadn’t felt like asking. But the turtle had had fire in his eyes as he had done his best to attack the Mystics again and again, no matter how many times Don told him to stop already.

And for a second, it seemed that maybe Raph would be able to pull it through.

And then the next, he was on the ground on his knees, yelling in pain, surrounded by fire.

“RAPH!” Don yelled, feeling the panic rise inside of him. He tried to rush closer, but was blocked by a strong wind, preventing him from moving forward. He couldn’t help but watch as the Mystics approached his brother, determined to strike him down for good.

It was like a repetition from when the Mystics had injured Leo earlier that night. It had been bad enough that the Mystics had gotten one turtle out of the game. Now they were about to get a second one.

Raph wasn’t ready to give up just like that though. Even surrounded by fire and most likely in great pain, he was still doing his very best to keep the Mystics’ blows at bay.

“Donnie! Run! Just go!” he managed to yell, and somehow Don heard him clear as day even through the howling wind. A coldness that had nothing to do with it washed over Don.

“What? No way, I’m coming, just try to hold on!”

“NO! Just leave me, I’ll buy ya some time!”

He… couldn’t be serious.

While the whole idea seemed absurd, the tone and the way Raph refused to even look at his way made Don believe that the turtle was in fact completely serious.

Now Don would _have_ to do something.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but there’s _no way_ I’m leaving you behind!” Don did his best to sound determined, but he was still trying to figure out what to do. The fire was still raging around Raphael, still giving him burns that would need immediate care once they were back home, and yet he was still trying to fight to keep the Mystics away from him despite the serious injuries and heavy bleeding.

Don would have to beat the Mystics on his own. But _how_?

Master Splinter. He had done it once before. Don would just… have to try to do the same. _Without_ the Sword of Tengu.

Fighting against the wind with all of his willpower, Don moved slowly forward, inching closer and closer to the fight taking place right in front of him. Once he got close enough, the wind wasn’t pushing him anymore, and he was able to charge towards the Mystics as well, fully aware that there was nothing he could do with only his bō.

“HEY!” he yelled, gaining the Mystics’ attention.

“ _Fire melts metal._ ”

Don tried his best to remain in front of the Metal Mystic while also avoiding his attacks, and when the Fire Mystic eventually joined in and attacked Don too, just like he had hoped, Don dodged, causing the wall of fire to hit the Metal Mystic instead. One down.

“ _Water quenches fire._ ”

The remaining Mystics turned towards Don in anger, but he couldn’t afford getting distracted. Multiple projectiles were launched his way, but he managed to avoid them all. When the Water Mystic stepped forward, Don was on the move again, but instead of positioning himself in front of the Fire Mystic, he made sure that he was by the fires still burning around Raph, even though the other turtle had tried his best to crawl further away from them. After a splash of water had killed the flames, Don ran behind the Fire Mystic to wait for the next wave, and soon there was a sizzling sound that indicated that another Mystic was down.

“ _Earth swallows water._ ”

The Mystics were catching on to Don’s plan, and were more on guard and precise with their attacks than before. Don tightened his hold on his bō, this meant that he would have to try and be one step ahead of his opponents. And more importantly, he couldn’t stop. Forcing the Mystics to constantly aim at him would mean that they simply couldn’t calculate their attacks as precisely as they should. His plan seemed to work too, as the wall of mud the Earth Mystic had created billowed over the Water Mystic instead, making him disappear from the sight like the others before him. 

“ _Wind scatters earth._ ”

Don turned towards the two remaining Mystics. He could do this, he was so close. Sweat dribbled down his face, every muscle of his body was screaming from exhaustion, but he couldn’t stop. With a yell, he ran towards the Mystics, pretending that he would finally attack them himself, but as the two got ready to counter him, wind howling everywhere around them once again, Don used his bō to launch himself into the air, over the Earth Mystic, so that the blast of air the Wind Mystic had prepared to send towards Don missed and instead made chunks of earth scatter all around them, leaving Don with only one more enemy to get rid of.

“ _And I shall quell the wind._ ”

Donatello faced the last Mystic, who was already taking steps back.

“C’mon, attack me!” Don provocated, posing with his bō, ready for more action. “Look what I did to your buddies, I can take you down too!”

Even though he seemed hesitant to do so, the Mystic was still backing away, clearly trying to figure out his chances. Don was still glaring at it, trying his best to look challenging, hoping that he was intimidating enough for the Mystic to start considering fleeing.

It seemed to work. The Mystic disappeared into a cloud of smoke, making Don almost collapse from the overwhelming relief.

“Yeah, you better run!” he called out to the nothingness, not sounding confident at all anymore. He knew he definitely would have lost the fight against the Wind Mystic, but maybe his opponent hadn’t wanted to take any risks after seeing his comrades fall down, one by one.

“Wow, Donnie, ya really did it…” a strained voice behind Don said. Hearing Raph speak filled Don with determination, washing out all the exhaustion he had felt just moments ago. He still had work to do.

“I did practically nothing, I just outsmarted them,” he dismissed his brother’s comment as he turned around to look at the other turtle.

He didn’t like what he was seeing. At all. Burnt skin, bleeding wounds, the way Raph was grimacing, most likely due to the pain… Don swallowed. He would have a long, long night taking care of both of his older brothers.

These self-sacrificing _idiots_.

“But we gotta go, they won’t stay down for too long,” Don said and hurried to help Raph up. The other turtle rose to his feet with great difficulty, while Don tried not to look at the burn marks covering his skin too carefully.

“I told ya to just go,” Raph murmured as the two made their way away from the Foot’s building, heavily leaning on Don for support.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t. You seriously need to learn when to retreat from a fight,” Don tried to gently tease, but his voice revealed how his heart wasn’t in it.

“Tsk. It’s not just that though. I was down, and they would have easily gotten ya down as well, and then what would’ve we done? Get Mikey to drag our asses back to the lair as well?”

“...You actually thought it through?”

“Why do ya sound so surprised? Of course I did!”

“Really? And you still believed that I would just go? Would you have just left if I had done the same?”

“...Whatever. Let’s just get home, yer gonna be busy and I can’t wait to get rid of all this smell of smoke.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** ~~Writing action scenes is the _worst_ aaaaaaaaaaaaaa~~
> 
> Next one will be up tomorrow!


	9. They Look So Pretty When They Bleed

10 - THEY LOOK SO PRETTY WHEN THEY BLEED  
blood loss | internal bleeding | **trail of blood**

806 words

\---

There were only three rules they had to follow after a serious fight.

One, take care of any and all medical emergencies _immediately_.

Two, apologize to Master Splinter for making him worry.

And three…

“Everyone got their buckets and sponges?”

The four turtles were standing in the sewer just outside their home, everyone holding a bucket filled with peroxide, as well as sponges and rubber gloves.

“Good,” Leonardo said, not waiting to hear an answer to his question, having visually confirmed that everyone had what they needed with them. “The same as usual, let’s spread out a little to cover more ground.”

With three solemn nods, the brothers walked further into the sewer, spreading out to be just a few feet apart from each other when they finally put on the rubber gloves and kneeled down with their buckets.

The rule number three was to always make sure that there was no trail of blood left behind as those could easily lead their enemies to their hideout.

“My back is _already_ hurting,” Michelangelo complained before even five minutes had passed.

“Oh shut up, Mikey,” Raphael immediately said, sending a glare at his youngest brother’s direction. “Ya didn’t even get hurt yesterday. Think ‘bout Donnie!”

“I’m fine,” Donatello quickly assured. “Can’t feel a thing at the moment.”

“I still think you should have skipped this one. This can’t be good for your stitches,” Leo tried to argue, but Donnie just shook his head.

“We have agreed that everyone who’s able to join will help out with this. And I’m definitely able.”

“How many painkillers did ya have to pop beforehand though?”

“...Not relevant in this situation.”

“Well at least we’ll get the job done faster, I still haven’t gotten to read that new _Justice League_ -comic I got last week. The cliffhanger in the last issue was _unbelievable_ , they-”

“Mikey, if ya say even _one more word_ ‘bout those stupid comics, I’ll make sure we’ll be cleanin’ yer blood tomorrow.”

“Hah, I happen to know that you don’t want to cause any extra work for yourself, I might just as well tell you that-”

“Guys,” Leo’s voice cut Mike off. “Could you just please concentrate? None of us likes this, but it has to be done, and the sooner we do it the better.”

With guilty looks, everyone continued their scrubbing. They shifted forward every couple of minutes, locating and attacking new spots after disposing the previous pieces of damning evidence of their existence.

Already knowing the most efficient way to work, the turtles were almost finished with their task within half an hour. It did help that there hadn’t been that much blood to begin with, but they still had to go through every inch on the route they had used the previous night, all the way to the manhole leading to the surface. Just to be sure.

“Don, how are you holding up?” Leo asked after noticing that the other turtle’s speed had decreased significantly

“I’m doing fine,” Don claimed, but no one was really buying it. Even Raph stopped his scrubbing and turned to look at Don.

“We’re almost done here ya know. Ya could just head back home already.”

“No, I want to help. It’s _my blood_ we’re cleaning here after all.”

“Dude!” Mikey had now stopped scrubbing as well. “We have literally done this dozens of times before, you can’t use that excuse anymore!”

“It’s still true though. Like Raph said, we’re almost done, I can-” Don’s sentence was cut short as a wave of pain originating from his wound traveled through his body. He tried his best to keep his face straight, but didn’t manage to fool his brothers this time either.

“You’re such a bad actor,” Mikey mumbled as a half-joke.

“Donatello, go home. We can handle this,” Leo told Don, trying his best to sound both gentle and commanding at the same time.

“But-”

“Ya heard what Fearless said,” Raph interrupted. “Go.”

Don looked at each of his brothers, trying to see if there would be any leeway for him to still argue back, but none of them seemed willing to compromise. With a heavy sigh, and quite a lot of effort, he stood up and took off his gloves.

“Fine. But just know that from this point forward I’m also going to force each one of you to go back home if you are still in pain when it’s time for clean-up duty.”

“Isn’t that what you already do?” Mikey teased as Don walked past him and towards the lair.

“Very funny Mikey,” Don responded before he was far enough for them to neither see nor hear him anymore.

“So… Back to work?” Raph asked and grabbed his sponge again.

“Yeah, back to work,” Leo confirmed. It would be better to finish with the clean-up sooner rather than later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** Something a bit calmer tonight. Also, **no** fic tomorrow, prompt 11 was used together with number 3. Next one will be up on the 12th!


	10. I Think I've Broken Something

12 - I THINK I'VE BROKEN SOMETHING  
broken down | broken bones | **broken trust**

Leonardo and Raphael centric  
1 174 words  
Takes place in the _Same As It Never Was_ -universe, but before the events of the episode

\---

“You just let him die!” Raphael’s accusatory yells echoed inside the lair. “I still can’t believe it! Ya didn’t even _try_ to stop him!”

Leonardo tried his best not to get agitated too, he knew that Raph was just mourning in his own way. They all were. Truth to be told, he was surprised that the yelling hadn’t started immediately after Master Splinter sacrificed himself.

Apparently now that sensei had been buried in that park which he had once loved, Raph had finally had enough of silence.

“It’s what he wanted,” Leo answered simply. He glanced quickly at Michelangelo, who was staying away from the whole argument. A wise decision.

“That’s bs! He didn’t wanna _die_ , I’m pretty sure of that!”

“It was him or all of us, and he wanted to protect us. You saw how he behaved after Donnie disappeared, how do you think he would have handled it if we _all_ were gone?”

A heavy silence fell around them. Leo’s sentence had brought nothing but painful thoughts and memories to their minds. He almost regretted saying it.

“I would’ve still rather died _myself_ than let Splinter take the hit,” Raph growled after a while, nowhere near done with the conversation.

“Guys, is there _really_ a need to discuss this _now_?” Mikey groaned quietly. “I think we all should just… rest.”

“Mikey’s right, we don’t need-” Leo tried to say, but was interrupted when Raph slammed his fist on the table in front of him.

“ _Yes we do_. Ya have been avoidin’ this from the very beginnin’, and we need to get some facts straight here. Ya can’t go around sayin’ that this was some sorta ideal outcome!”

“I _never_ said that!” The outrageous claim had finally broken the mask of calmness that Leo had tried his best to maintain. Leo could feel the anger rising inside him, as he glared Raph with almost as much venom as the other turtle was sending his way. “You think I’m happy with what happened? Because newsflash, Raph, I’m not! I hate the fact that things have come to this, but here we are, and it can’t be changed now!”

“It _could’ve_ been changed, but ya were a _coward_ and let Splinter face off Shredder on his own instead! We could’ve done _something_!”

“Guys I’m serious, I’m pretty sure this isn’t what Splinter would have wanted. If Donnie was here-” Mikey said, trying his best to calm down the situation, but it had apparently been the wrong thing to say. Raph had now turned to glare at him, and Mike could feel the hostility that was now aimed towards him.

“Well he ain’t! He went MIA, and ya can hold onto yer _childish beliefs_ all ya want but he ain’t comin’ back, it’s been _years_ -”

“Let him be Raphael, he’s been through enough tonight without having you yell at him for no reason,” Leo tried to order Raph. “It’s me you’re angry with. Look, I’m not asking for forgiveness from you-”

It had partially worked. Raph did spin towards Leo again, leaving Mikey to look slightly relieved. But he was somehow even more furious than before.

“ _Forgiveness_? What kinda high-horse are ya on to think I could _ever_ forgive you?”

“Raph-”

“ _You tricked us into leavin’ him alone to fight, knowin’ what he was ‘bout to do_! It’s all yer fault our father’s _dead_!”

There it was. The accusation that Raph had wanted to scream to Leo’s face for the last couple of days. It felt good to finally get it out, although it did not tone down the repulsion Raph was feeling towards his older brother.

The room was completely silent again. Leo’s own anger had disappeared, only to be replaced with the heaviness of sorrow, regret, and above all, guilt.

“...I know,” he finally whispered, voice breaking in the middle of the statement.

Leo couldn’t help but glance at Mikey. The youngest turtle wasn’t looking even remotely towards him, but it was enough for the pit in Leo’s stomach to grow even bigger. So Mikey _did_ blame him for what had happened as well.

Raphael had just kept silently glaring at Leo, and when he finally opened his mouth again he didn’t yell anymore, he was speaking in a normal volume again, but each syllable was still shaking with anger and hatred.

“The _perfect son_ , followin’ _every single order perfectly_ , even when things get deadly. I thought ya were the one that had some sort of sense of _honor_.”

Leo had always hated it when Raph had called him that. ‘The perfect son’. But this time it felt more like an insult than ever before, and it also cut much, much deeper. He tried his best to ignore it.

“It’s… going to take a while, but I’m sure that if we work together, with time we’ll-”

“I don’t think I can ever trust you again.” Raph’s sudden words made the two other turtles look at him with varying degrees of surprise and confusion on their faces.

“W-what?” Leo was able to stutter, but just barely.

“I can’t trust ya. Not after what happened. How could I?”

Leo felt like his legs would give out, like he would pass out any second. He looked at Mikey once again, saw that he had opened his mouth, maybe to say something, maybe to claim that of _course_ they could trust Leo, but the words had died on their way out, because deep down he knew. They all knew. 

That the small shadow of doubt would follow them or the rest of their lives, no matter how guilty Leo felt, no matter how much he regretted everything, no matter how sorry he was.

Leo tried his hardest to swallow, but a lump in his throat prevented it.

“...I suppose you will finally get to be the leader then,” he said quietly, turning back to look at Raph.

“Tsk. We don’t need a _leader_. We ain’t a _group_ anymore, it’s just me and Mikey now. _You_ are _dead_ to me. For all I care ya might as well go and never show yer face here _ever_ again.” With those last words and one more look capable of killing, Raphael turned around and left the room.

Leo didn’t even try to stop him. He just stood there, unable to move even an inch.

Mike glanced at him awkwardly, and then slowly followed Raph.

“Don’t worry dude, I’ll… try to talk to him, maybe he’ll calm down a bit,” he tried to cheer Leo up weakly, before disappearing as well.

It took an hour of coaxing before Mikey was able to get Raph to agree to return. He hadn’t calmed down though, on the contrary, he was ready to yell at Leo some more, to make sure that the older turtle was hurting just as much as he was, if not more.

But they soon found out that it couldn’t happen.

Leonardo had left. The only thing remaining of him was the neatly folded blue mask on their kitchen table.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** Everyone loves _SAINW_ , right? RIGHT?
> 
> Next story will be up tomorrow!


	11. Breathe In Breathe Out

13 - BREATHE IN BREATHE OUT  
delayed drowning | **chemical pneumonia** | oxygen mask

Michelangelo-centric  
781 words  
Takes place during S2E3 _Turtles In Space pt. 3_

\---

“I don’t know about you, bros, but now _I’m_ ready for a taste of good ol’ oxygen,” Michelangelo said and took a deep breath after deliberately not doing so for a long while. Except that his lungs didn’t fill the way he had expected them to. He inhaled something, sure, but it wasn’t oxygen. That something made him cough uncontrollably, his system protesting against the lack of fresh air.

“Oxygen?” the triceraton repeated as he stood next to Mikey, watching him slowly suffocate. “We triceratons breathe a hardy mixture of nitrogen and sulphur.”

Mikey could hear his brothers coughing now as well, apparently reaching their own limits too. Yet the triceratons were in no hurry to do anything about it.

“Take them away for interrogation,” the leader of the aliens finally said. “And get them four atmosphere converters.”

Mikey wanted to say something, tell them to hurry, but he couldn’t get a single word out between the coughs. His eyes were burning now, almost as much as his mouth and throat, and it was starting to become really painful. Mike needed desperately just one good, deep breath that his body could process, and he needed it _now_.

The two other triceratons that had followed their leader’s orders and walked away, apparently to fetch something from their supplies, now returned back to the coughing turtles. Mikey tried to reach his hand out for them, trying to tell them that he _really_ needed some sort of help right _now_ , but the aliens walked first to Leo, who was the one furthest away from Mikey. He tried to see what they were doing to Leo, but Mike’s vision was getting blurry, maybe from tears, maybe because of the lack of oxygen, so he couldn’t properly see what was happening. He could only hear unpleasant sounding gagging coming from Leo’s way.

Mikey attempted to crawl towards the sounds, but he was too weak. He collapsed to the floor, still coughing.

He was barely able to hear that it was now Raphael’s turn to gag. Leo’s coughs had stopped, and he was taking deep breaths instead, trying to satisfy his lungs that were probably still screaming almost as much as Mikey’s were. Apparently the triceratons really were trying to help, if only a little. But they were so _slow_. 

Mikey was sure that he would be a goner before they finally reached him.

His chest was hurting _so much _.__

__Leo had been able to get back onto his feet, and suddenly appeared next to Mikey, trying to figure out if there was any way for him to help._ _

__“He needs his converter _now_!” he told the triceratons, but they didn’t seem to be listening - Mikey couldn’t hear any approaching footsteps. He couldn’t really see anymore, his head was spinning, he was sure that he would pass out any second now. He vaguely registered Don’s gagging from somewhere nearby._ _

__He couldn't take it anymore. Mikey could feel Leo’s hands trying to hold him up, unable to support his weight on his own any longer. His coughing had somewhat calmed down, but he was still involuntarily trying to gasp for air, fully aware of how impossible it was._ _

__He was losing the fight._ _

__Mikey could feel the unconsciousness creeping on the edges of his mind, and he was about to let it finally take over, when a set of large hands that he didn’t recognize pulled him upwards and forced him to open his mouth. Just when Mikey was about to cough again, something was forced down his throat, a tube of some sort, which made him gag instead. He could feel the alien attach something to his belt, before the hands let go of him, and Mikey was on the ground once again._ _

__He gasped for air again, but this time his lungs actually filled with oxygen. _He could breathe again_._ _

__Slowly but steadily Mike was able to regain the control of his own body. He was still aching, his throat and chest especially, but he was recovering from what had happened nevertheless. Leo was still right next to him, and he eventually helped Mike to get up. Mikey wasn’t quite able to stand on his own yet either, and had to lean on his oldest brother for support._ _

__“When we get back home,” Mikey panted, still feeling very out of breath, “remind me not to take the oxygen for granted ever again.”_ _

__The triceratons seemed satisfied with how the situation had been resolved. The leader of the group stepped forward once more, glaring at the four turtles._ _

__“You are our prisoners now. Follow us, we will take you to where you will be held.”_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** Next one will be uploaded tomorrow!


	12. Is Something Burning?

14 - IS SOMETHING BURNING?  
branding | heat exhaustion | **fire**

Michelangelo-centric  
2 241 words

\---

“So like, if you _reeeally_ think about it, I would be the best superhero there is!”

“Are ya done yet? I asked ya to come for a run, not to listen to yer monologue.”

Raphael had stopped on the edge of a rooftop, just so he could give Michelangelo, who was only a couple of steps behind him, a proper, annoyed look.

“Oh c’mon, you know what you signed up for when you asked me to come! If you had wanted serious training, you should have asked Leo!”

“Listen here you-”

An explosion cut Raph off. The two brothers turned to look at where the sound came from, only to see a pillar of smoke rising up towards the night sky in the distance .

“...We should probably check that out,” Raph said instead.

“Way ahead of you,” Mikey said as he ran towards the smoke.

Soon they were able to see which building the explosion had come from, or rather, they could see the flames and smoke surrounding it. The fire department was already there, putting down the flames, trying to do whatever they could to save as much of the building, and as many people, as possible.

The two turtles stood on the roof silently for a while, just looking at the scene.

“Should we do something?” Mikey asked, feeling uncomfortable just watching while being fully aware that they could, in fact, do _something_ to help. They were strong, they were fast. Just… _something_.

“No,” Raph answered, eyes glued to the disaster in front of them. “We can’t just go there, we can’t be seen, ya know that.”

“There’s a bunch of smoke there, even if people _did_ see us we could say that we’re wearing some helmets and they’re mistaken! Or that they are hallucinating because of the smoke! Or-”

“Look, Mikey, we ain’t goin’. Ya ain’t a hero who has chosen savin’ people as their livin’. Just leave it to the professionals.”

“But-”

The loud gasps and cheers coming from the people gathered around the burning building got their attention. More people had appeared, but not normal people.

“Look,” Raph pointed. “The Justice Force. The _real_ heroes are here, we can go now.” With that, he started walking away from the site.

“What? No, hang on! We’re just gonna _leave_?” Mikey questioned, hardly believing what he had just heard. Raph stopped and turned to look back at his brother.

“There’s literally nothin’ we can do! And there’s plenty of people there already, they’ll do whatever they can, they don’t need us oglin’ at it.”

“I’m not going anywhere! I want to see that everything turns out okay!”

“Fine! Do whatever ya want, I’m outta here.” And with that he left, leaving Mikey standing alone, looking at the still burning building.

He really wanted to do something, but he also knew that Raph had a point, he couldn’t just run into the building and show himself to the people inside. But he couldn’t do nothing either. There were _lives_ at risk.

Isn’t that why he wished to be Turtle Titan? So he could help people in situations like this, and feel like he had actually done something and not just lurked in the shadows his whole life?

_“Ya ain’t a hero.”_

He had to do something.

Leaping from a roof to another, Mikey circled the building, trying to find the best spot to enter it without being seen by the crowd. Accessing it from the ground level would be impossible, maybe there was a balcony somewhere that he could jump onto? 

Finally, on the back of the building which was hidden from the crowd’s line of sight, Mikey saw a balcony that even had its door open for easy access.

Perfect.

One easy jump later Mikey was standing on the balcony. He headed inside, and it seemed like he had ended up in one of the apartments. It made him hesitant to enter, if only for a second.

“Hello?” he called out carefully, but received no answer. Good, it seemed like no one was around. Mikey snuck inside.

While he couldn’t see any actual flames yet, the smoke and the heat were already making their way to the apartment. Immediately after noticing it, Mikey threw himself to the floor, trying to avoid the smoke as much as possible.

Mike hesitated again, trying to figure out what exactly he should do now, but pretty soon decided that it would be best to check the apartment first, just in case. Maybe there was still someone who hadn’t made it out in time and had been unable to answer him when he’d called.

It was a good thing he checked.

There was indeed someone in the middle of their kitchen, passed out on the ground.

Mikey’s heart skipped a beat as he crawled closer to the human to check their condition, hoping from the bottom of his heart that he wasn’t too late. He couldn’t get a response out of them, but was glad to notice that they were still very much alive.

“I need to get you outta here…” Mikey mumbled. With hardly any trouble he was able to place the person safely over his shell.

That was the easy part. Now they would have to get to safety.

Mikey crawled slowly towards the door, and after stopping to make sure he couldn’t hear anyone moving in the hallway and that the door wasn’t hot, he made it out there himself. The smoke was even thicker there, but he kept crawling forward, locating a staircase not that far away on his right. He carried the person down a couple of floors, until there was significantly less smoke, and he could hear yelling echoing from the floor below.

Gently, he placed the person back on the ground, once again making sure that they were still breathing. He then backed away, getting ready to run up on the stairs to where he had come from.

“HEY!” Mikey yelled so the people on the floor below could hear him. “There’s someone here!”

Soon there was the sound of running footsteps, heading his way. He escaped back upstairs, in hopes that the people coming up would be preoccupied by the person Mike had carried to safety for a little while longer. In the meantime, he would be able to explore the apartments further to see if someone else was still there.

But when Mikey was back on the floor he had arrived at, he soon noticed that the situation had gotten much worse.

The smoke around him was so thick that he was hardly able to see right in front of himself. The heat made standing in the hallway almost unbearable, but there weren’t any flames yet. He still had time.

Crawling forward on the floor once again, Mikey tried to reach for the handle of another apartment. But before he was able to get a hold of it, he saw a flickering light coming from the opposite end of the hallway.

Shell. The flames.

Mikey tried his best not to panic. He would just have to leave _right now_ , he didn’t have any equipment that would protect him if the flames reached him. He turned around, he would just have to make it downstairs again, find a way out, and-

A loud rumbling sound, almost like a crash, startled Mikey. He had no idea what had happened, only that it had come from the direction he was supposed to head to, so he kept crawling closer. 

His whole body tensed.

The staircase, his only way downstairs, had just collapsed.

He was trapped.

Shell. Shell shell shell shell shell _shell_.

_Okay… Okay Mikey. Stay calm. You can still get out! The balcony! Head out the same way you came from!_

He crawled back where he _thought_ the door was. The smoke was getting way too thick, it was already making Mikey uncontrollably. He was getting more and more dizzy, struggling to both get enough oxygen and avoid inhaling any smoke.

Mikey glanced at the flames approaching him from the other end of the hallway. They were definitely creeping closer, and much faster that he had anticipated. The heat was getting untolerable.

He had to get out _now_.

Where was _that door_?

It was so difficult to move…

The door… Smoke… Fire…

_“Ya ain’t a hero.”_

He really wasn’t.

Michelangelo’s world faded into blackness.

\---

“I _still_ can’t believe you just left him there.”

“What? He ain’t a _child_ anymore, how was I supposed to know that he would run into a burning building?”

“I’m with Raph on this one, Donnie, it’s not like Mikey to run into danger like that. There has to be something else behind this as well.”

“I guess…”

The voices of his brothers were the first thing Mikey became aware of. The second thing was the thudding headache he currently had.

He moaned quietly before opening his eyes slowly, only to close them immediately again. The bright light of the room did _not_ help with the headache.

“Hey uhh, guys?” he groaned, squeezing his eyes tightly shut. “Could you maybe turn off the lights?”

“Mikey!” he could hear the choir of voices say before a set of feet hurried towards the door where the light switch was. A soft click told Mike that it was safe to try to open eyes again, and this time he managed to do so without any additional pain.

He turned his head and saw the three other turtles standing nearby, all of them looking rather relieved.

“How are you feeling?” Don asked, and walked from the lightswitch back towards where Mikey was resting.

“I have a killer headache,” Mikey admitted, “but otherwise I’m fine I guess. How- how did I get out from there?”

“Your buddy Silver Sentry dropped you off here about an hour ago,” Leo told him. “Apparently he had found you unconscious in a hallway, and thought that it would be better to get you out of there before anyone else ran into you.”

“Oh man, he had to carry me out?” Mikey faltered, feeling embarrassed that his hero had witnessed his unsuccessful rescue mission.

“Just be glad that he did,” Raph mumbled.

“Why did you go there in the first place?” Don asked, picking up a glass of water and some painkillers from a table nearby.

Mikey hesitated.

“I dunno, I guess I wanted to prove that I was capable of helping. And I did! I’m pretty sure I saved someone’s life while there!”

“I thought I said that ya _shouldn’t_ go inside, that ya should leave it to the pros who were already at the scene!” Raph argued, looking at his youngest brother in disbelief. Mikey didn’t know how to answer right away, and instead bought himself some time by taking the painkillers Don was offering.

“I know,” he finally answered. “I think that’s why…” He didn’t exactly feel like finishing the sentence, but it seemed like the others got the message anyway. Both Leo and Don turned to look at Raph, whose expression had changed from angry to a guilty one.

“Don’t tell me ya want there because…”

“‘ _Ya ain’t a hero_ ’,” Mikey repeated, trying to imitate Raph’s voice, but wasn’t able to look at him while doing so. He sipped more of his water, feeling the tension in the room rise slightly.

“I think you and Mikey should have a little talk,” Don suggested to Raph, and walked out of the room to give the two a chance to do so immediately.

“And you will also have a talk with _me_ later,” Leo said sternly, before following Don’s example. Once he too was out of earshot Raph sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Great, another lecture.”

Mike just hummed in response, suddenly feeling rather awkward over the situation. The silence continued for a while before Raph finally broke it.

“Look, Mikey, I’m sorry for what I said. I shouldn’t have, it’s my fault that-”

“No, dude, it was _me_ who went in, it’s my own fault. Like, sure, I guess your words got into my head, and made me feel like I should show you that I _can_ do stuff, but it backfired. You had a point though, I’m no hero. I’m just a normal mutant turtle,” Mikey blabbered, still staring at his glass and not anywhere even remotely close to Raph.

“Ya actually went in, though. Ya have more hero in ya than I do. Ya did say ya had saved someone in there too, that has to count as somethin’ ya know,” Raph said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Can’t let ya take all the blame.”

“We can share it. You know, sharing is caring and all that.”

Raph chuckled a little.

“I guess.”

Mikey was finally able to move his gaze from the glass to Raph, and he smiled a little too.

“Gotta admit Mikey,” Raph started quietly, “I was still runnin’ nearby when Silver Sentry flew past me, just barely saw him carryin’ ya with ‘im, but it was enough to scare me outta my shell. Tried to yell after ‘im, but I guess he didn’t realize it so I just had to run all the way here to figure out what happened.”

Mikey blinked a couple of times after hearing the story, but soon grinned widely.

“Aww Raphie, I knew you cared despite you _constantly_ threatening me with a physical assault!”

“Oh _shut up_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** This one was a little bit of a struggle, but here it is anyway. Next one tomorrow!


	13. Into The Unknown

15 - INTO THE UNKNOWN  
possession | magical healing | **science gone wrong**

Donatello-centric  
962 words  
Turtle-Tot age

\---

Donatello had never been happier.

Master Splinter had gone topside and returned with a science kit for children, just like Donnie had asked after seeing a commercial of one. This one wasn't brand new, but judging by the condition of the things inside the kit, the previous owner had probably hadn’t used it more than once.

After a quick hug and a thank you for his father, Donnie had run off with the kit. He spread the contents of it on the floor in one of the lair’s corners, and went through them excitedly. He had already read tons of books about science, but he had never had an actual chance to try out anything before now.

It was going to be fun.

But only a few hours later Donnie stopped, immensely disappointed. He had already gone through every single experiment the kit had instructions for, and it had been nowhere _near_ the “endless amounts of fun” as the commercial had promised him.

There was nothing left to do. But it had been _so much fun_ , he didn’t want to stop quite yet.

“Okay Donnie,” he muttered to himself, “you’re a smart cookie, you can figure out something on your own! Let’s see…”

He was looking at the mess he had made, trying to think what else he could do with what the kit had supplied. A small scale, some wires, strips of pH paper…

“Hang on!” Don exclaimed joyfully. _That’s_ what he could do! The instructions booklet had only advised him to test the levels of tap water and a lemon, but he could take measurements from other things too. Don grabbed the extra strips, and went to explore the lair.

The pH of their leftover pizza was 6. Toothpaste, 9. Soda, 2,5. Raphael’s mouth, 6,5.

What else, what else…

Don stopped next to the cabinet he knew Master Splinter kept their cleaning equipment in. They were usually not allowed to go there, but… some of the chemicals would no doubt have interesting pH-levels. Don hesitated.

“I’m sure Master Splinter won’t mind,” he said to himself as he reached for the handle of the cabinet. “After all, it’s for science. And I’ll be careful.”

The door opened with a creak, and inside of it Don could see various different bottles, all on the higher shelves of the cabinet. Maybe a challenge for a normal child, but not for a ninja in training.

Don was able to climb up the shelves easily, and soon he was going down again while holding on to the first bottle he had been able to grab. Once on the ground, he checked the label. Bleach. Surely this would be a good one to test.

He carefully unscrewed the cork of the bottle, and was immediately met with a strong smell emerging from the bottle. Thinking it was probably better if he didn’t inhale the stuff too much, Don turned his head away and instead tried to blindly dip his strip of paper to the bleach. It didn’t go too well at first, he missed the hole a bunch of times, but he eventually got it. He took the strip back out as soon as possible, and was already reaching for the cork of the bottle when-

“Donatello! What are you doing?” Splinter’s voice made Don jump a little, the rat had suddenly appeared right next to him. The startle had made the contents of the bottle move around, and some of it splashed outside, right on Donnie’s hands.

“I… I… Science!” Don tried to explain, but he was feeling a little bit scared, he was absolutely certain that Splinter was now mad at him since he had broken the rules. His nerves were making his hands tingle, as he turned to look at Splinter. 

But the rat wasn’t looking at him, he was looking at the bottle. He reached for the cork, and screwed it tightly back to the bottle before whisking it away from Don. The young turtle was left to sit on the floor on his own, worried that Master Splinter was _so_ mad at him that the rat wouldn’t even look at him. The thought made his hands tingle even more, it was almost painful now.

Splinter came back almost immediately, hands wrapped in rubber gloves, carrying a roll of paper towels. Don tried to ask him what was going on, but the rat didn’t answer, and instead his father kneeled next to Don and took his hands to his own.

“How much did you spill?” Splinter asked gently, wiping Don’s hands with the paper towels.

“What?”

“How much bleach did you get on your hands?”

“Uh, not much? Just a little, you startled me…”

“My apologies. I was just as startled to see you with the bottle. It could have been very dangerous.” Splinter kept wiping Don’s hands gently, and the tingling was slowly becoming less intense. Oh. So it wasn’t his nerves...

“I thought you were mad at me,” Don confessed, now realizing that he had been wrong about that as well. Splinter had simply been worried.

“I am not. But I do wish that you do not do this again,” Splinter said with a more stern tone, and looked into Don’s eyes. The turtle just nodded, feeling like this was enough science for a little while.

“Good. Now, we must wash off the remaining traces of bleach properly. Come with me.”

Don slowly stood up, but before he followed Splinter to the bathroom, he glanced back at the paper strip he had dropped on the floor. He had memorized the pH color chart on the booklet, so he immediately knew what number the color represented.

The purple perfectly matching his mask was the unlucky number 13. How funny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** This was quite a bit lighter than many of the other prompts I have written for Whumptober, but I liked the idea too much to not write it. Anyway, next one tomorrow!


	14. A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

16 - A TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY  
forced to beg | **hallucinations** | shoot the hostage

Leonardo-centric  
1 599 words  
Canon divergence after S3E14 _The Darkness Within_

\---

During the nights, when Leonardo was lying in his bed, about to fall asleep, he could swear he was still able to hear it. The alluring voice of the creature, the Necro Monster, whispering promises of power to his ear. That he could be stronger than anyone else. That he could get the respect that he rightfully deserved. That he could be the leader of the _whole_ world.

Leo had told it that he wasn’t interested. And he really wasn’t, but during the moments when he was drifting on the edge of consciousness, about to fall asleep, he had to admit that those promises sounded very, _very_ tempting.

Eventually the voice made its way into his dreams. It made him see things, both wonderful and awful, each vision more mesmerizing and addictive than the last. Those dreams felt so real when he was experiencing them, like he was actually _living_ through them, but once he opened his eyes the next day he had no recollection of them ever happening.

Sometimes in the mornings, when he walked into the bathroom and glanced at the mirror hanging above the sink, he could have sworn that for a split second, he could see red eyes staring back at him. 

Although, it _must_ have been only his imagination.

\---

“Everyone ready to go in five?” Leo asked his brothers one evening when they were supposed to head out. He received mumbles sounding like an agreement from both Raphael and Michelangelo, but one confirmation was still missing.

“Donnie?”

“Uh, can you make it ten?” the other turtle finally answered, completely wrapped up in his research. “I’m _almost_ done with this, I think I need just a little bit more time than that.”

**C’mon, I know you can do better** , the quietest sound inside of Leo’s head said. It didn’t quite sound like his own voice. Yet, Leo could have sworn he had heard the voice a million times before, but he had no idea where.

“I know you can do better than that,” he repeated regardless. The uncharacteristic answer made Donatello glance at his brother, almost like he was about to question it, but he quickly returned back to his research.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Don said, sounding hesitant.

They were in fact able to leave in five minutes. The small accomplished made the voice in Leo’s head humm happily.

\---

After their normal training session, Leo had decided to stay in the dojo to practice on his own for a little while longer. The voices echoing from behind the closed doors broke through Leo’s concentration, telling him that it was dinner time already.

That meant it was about time he finished as well.

But as Leo was putting away his katana, he let his eyes scan the room. He was sure he heard someone whisper, even though he knew for sure that no one else was there.

“ **Just a little while longer would make you stronger** ,” the voice said.

Leo stopped and looked around again. He was definitely alone, but for some reason hearing a voice when he shouldn’t didn’t make him feel alerted in the slightest. It felt… so familiar. So trustworthy. Who cared where it had come from?

The voice was right though, a little while longer wouldn’t hurt. It would just make Leo stronger, better.

He ended up accidentally missing the dinner. Leo didn’t mind too much though.

\---

Leo was looking at the ground by his feet where a Foot ninja was trying his best to crawl away from the turtle. Maybe this was a new recruit, not used to these kinds of fights. The Foot didn’t usually try to escape.

“Maybe ye should knock ‘em out, just in case,” Raph suggested from somewhere behind Leo. “Don’t want him to secretly follow us home and ruin the others’ night off.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Leo answered absent-mindedly and grabbed his katana again, planning on hitting the Foot ninja on the head with the sword’s tsuka. But when Leo was about to follow through his plan, something made him stop.

“ **You’re stronger than that. Make him fear you, make him _respect_ you.**” There it was again. The voice, now clear as a day, coming from somewhere Leo couldn’t see. It had grown stronger and stronger for the past week, suggesting that Leo did things, things that were insignificant enough that the turtle didn’t think twice about following the orders. It had made him feel good, it had made him feel powerful, it had made him feel like he could do anything.

But this time…

“ **Kill him.** ”

This was the first time Leo wanted to reject the voice, its request made no sense to him. He didn’t want to kill anyone if he had a choice, it was the honorable thing to do. He would just lower his hand, take a step aside, tell Raph to-

His hand moved on its own. One moment the Foot ninja was still crawling away from Leo, the next a warm splash of blood spread across the turtle’s face. The man wasn’t moving anymore.

Did he- 

No way. He wouldn’t- 

Leo’s whole body was frozen, eyes glued to the mess right in front of him. He hadn’t wanted to do that.

“What the _shell_ , Leo, I told ya to just knock ‘em out, not- I can’t believe you just did that!” Raph’s shocked voice was confirmation enough, Leo had in fact just done that. He had just…

“ _Why_ did you do that?” Raph asked, still sounding completely stunned.

Leo wished more than anything that he would have been able to answer.

\---

“Hey Leo, uh, can we talk for a sec?” Mikey asked, approaching the oldest turtle carefully. Leo wanted to do nothing more than to just say no and continue his meditation, but he knew how persistent his brother could be. So he opened his eyes, and turned to look at uncomfortable looking Michelangelo, who had sat on the floor opposite of him.

“What?”

“So… me and the others have been talking. Something seems to be bothering you, you’ve been acting kinda strange lately. And I hoped that maybe you’d like to talk about it,” Mikey explained, looking at Leo with a hopeful expression.

“ **He doesn’t want you to be powerful.** ”

“Nothing’s wrong. I’m feeling better than ever,” Leo tried to assure, his voice strict.

“...Suuuuure, if you say so. But seriously, if it’s because of what happened with that dude a week ago, we could talk about it y’know. I know it’s _probably_ not what you _meant_ to do or anything, but that’s still gotta be affecting you or something!”

“ **He doesn’t respect you.** ”

“I did what I had to do! Why are you questioning me?” Leo could feel something build up inside him, something he couldn’t quite put into words. Something not quite… Leo.

“I’m not! Look, okay, you don’t wanna talk about it, we don’t have to,” Mikey quickly assured, but raised his hands up in front of him, almost like to defend himself from Leo’s verbal attack. “But like, something’s different, and not in a good way, like when they added more chocolate chips to those really good cookies. More like… I dunno really, but I’m not a fan of it.”

“ **He’s deflecting you.** ”

“Well no one asked for your opinion in the first place!” Leo practically yelled, every muscle of his body tense.

“Woah, overreacting much? You sound more and more like Raph,” Mikey joked nervously. “The message’s clear. No talking, gotcha. I’ll just go tell the others that I got nowhere with you, tell them what you said.”

“ **He’s trying to turn the others against you as well.** ”

Leo had nothing left to say. The weird feelings inside of him were growing stronger and stronger, making his whole body shake ever so slightly. All the lines the voice had told him were bouncing around in his head, culminating into just one sentence.

_Mikey is against me now._

“ **Without him we could rule the world.** ”

Mikey was about to get up from the floor after the failed attempt to connect with his brother, but suddenly found himself back on the floor, on his shell, with Leo on top of him.

“Leo! Dude, what are you doing?”

But Leo couldn’t hear him. Not really. He was too busy with the battle that was now raging inside of him.

His body had moved on its own again. Sure, he had been feeling angry at Mikey, but nowhere near to the level that he’d _attack_ him. What _was_ he doing? Had he actually even been angry? Why?

The feeling of clarity that Leo hadn’t experienced in weeks rushed over him.

These thoughts… they weren’t his. They were someone else's. Someone else had been feeding him these… lies, these visions, and he had somehow fallen for them. The voice he had been hearing lately was nowhere near as warm as when Leo had learned to trust it, and now it was urging Leo to _hurt_ his brother... It was cold, it was cruel, and it would let nothing stand on its way.

It sounded just like the alien that Leo had defeated. Or _thought_ he had defeated.

Leo’s body was shaking more and more, as he was trying to fight against his hands that were desperately trying to reach Mikey’s throat. But he had been listening to the voice for too long. It’s hold on him was too strong.

“I- I think something’s wrong with me,” Leo was able to stutter, before his eyes turned to red and he completely lost control over his body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** I've always thought that they should have done something more with the creature since it very clearly was still alive to some extend when the episode ended, but oh well. Next fic will be up tomorrow again!


	15. I Did Not See That Coming

17 - I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING  
blackmail | dirty secret | **wrongfully accused**

1 066 words  
AUish: Let’s pretend that the turtles never found out that the utroms are behind the T.C.R.I. and because of that they don’t know the story behind their origin. I have no idea where on the timeline this could happen because I ran into problems with every option I tried to think of, but it happens somewhere after the _The Return to New York_ -episodes.

\---

“There’s no way I’m gonna believe that. There’s no _way_ he would’ve done that.”

“I don’t want to believe that- that we have been raised as _test_ subjects either, Raph, but look at all this evidence they’ve given us!”

“It _obviously_ has to be fake, Brainiac, ‘cause Splinter wouldn’t have done that in a million years! Ya think he would’ve spent all that time with us, pretending to care if that was true?”

“I honestly don’t know what to think anymore,” Donatello said, sounding defeated. “Look at this picture, it was taken _ages_ ago!”

The four turtles had gathered around Don’s computer, looking at the screen with gloomy expressions. The picture in question was currently displayed on it, showing them a grainy shot of a dark alley with a very familiar looking figure of a giant rat.

“How can you tell?” Leonardo asked, somehow sounding even more serious than usual.

“Look, here,” Don zoomed to the background of the picture so he was able to properly show a sign hanging atop of a door, “this shop hasn’t been there for almost three years! And there, that’s _definitely_ Master Splinter, carrying that weird looking cage, assumably full of innocent creatures about to be tested!”

“See, ya said yourself that yer just assumin’ that!” Raphael pointed out.

“But what else could it _be_?”

“Maybe we had a pet at some point that ran away and we all just collectively forgot?” Michelangelo suggested, but even he didn’t seem to believe it.

“And look at all this other stuff!” Don continued, completely ignoring Mikey’s comment, instead scrolling through everything else they had been given. “Stockman gave us a USB flash drive _full_ of pictures, voice recordings and documents. What are we supposed to think about that?”

“So yer gonna ignore the fact that Splinter has been there for us since day one, raised us and risked his own life _multiple_ times to save ours, and believe Doctor Robot instead?”

“I’m not saying that! It’s just that the amount of evidence is making me doubt a bunch of stuff right now! It fits a little bit too well you know, Stockman clearly knows how to work with mutations. You have seen the Shredder Clones he made, he could have very well created us using the same method. Maybe we were the first test subjects!”

“So, what, all his stories about his past life as a normal rat, Master Yoshi and our mutation were lies or something?” Mikey questioned. “There’s proof of those as well!”

“Yeah! How do ya explain the T.C.R.I. thing? What, Stockman made that as well or somethin’?” Raph agreed.

“I don’t know! I just don’t know!” Don admitted and turned towards Leo, who had been very quiet for most of the conversation and opted for looking at nothing, just thinking. “What do you think?”

Leo contemplated his answer for a little while.

“I’m not sure,” he finally admitted. “I know the Master Splinter we know would never do anything like… _this_. And it’s really hard for me to even consider that everything up until now would have been just… an act. That he wasn’t really our sensei, or our father, but the enemy we have been fighting against this whole time. But I can’t just ignore all… this either. The pictures, the documents… _Something_ is going on.”

Silence fell into the room, as the four turtles each battled with the whirling feelings inside of them. Stockman had claimed their whole lives to be nothing but lies, an experiment. That everything since the day they had mutated had been a part of a plan to raise super soldiers for the Shredder. 

And now that the plan had turned out to be successful, Master Splinter had left them to move on to the next project, and the turtles would need to join the Foot as its long awaited allies.

Everything would have been so much easier if they had just been able to ask Splinter about all this, but the rat was nowhere to be found.

“ _He’s already preparing himself to be the surrogate trainer slash father for the next project_ ,” Stockman had told the turtles when they had questioned him about their father’s whereabouts. “ _He simply had nothing more to say to you, he has already moved on. I think he’s raising frogs this time._ ”

“We’re gonna do something, right?” Mike asked quietly. “I don’t exactly feel like joining the Foot.”

“Shell no,” Raph agreed. “There’s no way I’d ever join those bastards.”

“There’s one thing we can do,” Leo slowly began. “We could try and double check everything here. I know it’s a lot, but if everything checks out… I don’t know. Maybe at that point we have to accept that this is the truth. But not yet. For all we know, Master Splinter could be in serious danger right now.”

“I can try to run the pictures and the recordings through some analyzer program, it should be able to point out any tampering and help us determine whether they’re fake or not,” Don offered and turned back towards his computer, typing vicariously on his keyboard.

“Good. But first, could you print the pictures for the rest of us? We’ll try to find the locations in them, check if there’s anything off about them,” Leo added.

“Gotcha.”

“The faster we solve this, the better. Like I said, we have no idea where sensei is. Maybe he has been captured and this is all just a distraction or an attempt to trick us. Or maybe… maybe he really is with his new family, in which case he’s fine.”

It hurt them to even think about that. That they could have really meant nothing to the rat, while he had had the most crucial role in their lives. It just felt… wrong.

Don had managed to print out all the pictures, and was now handing them out to his brothers, who all took their stacks while bearing grim looks.

“Make sure you’re not being followed, let’s meet back here in two hours,” Leo instructed, and received nods of agreement from both Mikey and Raph.

With heavy hearts and doubtful minds, the four brothers separated, hoping that once they reunited they would finally have some answers. Maybe to the question of what had happened to Master Splinter.

Maybe they would even learn the truth about their own existence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** Next fic tomorrow, it's the longest one (so far) too


	16. Panic! At The Disco + What's a Whumpee Gotta Do To Get Some Sleep Around Here?

18 - PANIC! AT THE DISCO + 23 - WHAT'S A WHUMPEE GOTTA DO TO GET SOME SLEEP AROUND HERE?  
panic attacks | phobias | **paranoia** \+ **exhaustion** | narcolepsy | sleep deprivation

Leonardo-centric  
3 225 words  
Younger turtles. Not tots anymore, but younger than in the series

\---

_Where is everyone?_

Donatello was standing right behind him, next to the dumpster that was making the whole alley smell disgusting.

He could see Raphael a little bit to the left, leaning to a wall, curiously peeking towards the busy street the alleway led to.

Michelangelo… Mickey was still climbing up the manhole they had used to get there, sliding it back to its place once he too was out.

_Good._

Leonardo was able to calm down, just a little bit. He wholeheartedly agreed with their sensei, they should _not_ go topside any more than was absolutely necessary. It was a dangerous world for creatures like them who didn’t really belong there, and for that reason they should remain hidden in the sewers. 

But then again, he hadn’t had the heart to prohibit the trip after the others had so excitedly come to tell him about their plan to sneak out in the middle of the night.

_“It’ll be fun!”_ they had said. _“Think about all the open space! We’ll be careful, no one will see us!”_

He had thought that it would be for the best for him to join them, to make sure that nothing went wrong. Leo was the leader of their group now, it was his responsibility, his duty, to make sure that his brothers remained unharmed, _especially_ in situations like this. 

But the second he had climbed up to the surface Leo could already tell that he absolutely _hated_ being up there.

There was so much more going on here than in the sewers. There were so many more things to be distracted by. There were _so_ many more people, walking around.

There were so many more things that could go wrong.

“Remember, we’ll have to be back in _one hour_ ,” Leo reminded the others. “Otherwise Master Splinter will surely notice that we’re not where we said we would be.”

“Well let’s get goin’ then!” Raph urged. “There’s so much to see!”

“Where are we going first?” Don asked, sounding both excited and curious.

“I smell food!” Mikey announced. “We _gotta_ get some!” The youngest turtle had dashed towards the entrance of the alleyway, but Leo held him back before he could run to the street.

“Mikey no! You could be seen!” Leo dragged Mikey back to the shadows, away from the lights that could so easily betray them. What had been left of his calmness after stepping on the surface had just disappeared in a split second.

This would be the longest hour in Leo’s life.

“Well we can’t stay here!” Raph argued back, starting to feel annoyed. “We can’t see _anythin’_ from here, that was the whole point of this, to go and _see_ stuff!”

“We’re _not_ going to the streets either!” Leo said firmly. “Guys, _we can’t be seen_. That’s like, the first rule Master Splinter ever told us!”

_Too many humans. Everywhere. Someone would definitely see us._

“Maybe we could go up there?” Don pointed to a ladder next to Raph, leading up to a rooftop. “We would be able to basically see the whole city, but people wouldn’t be able to see _us_ that easily!”

“Well what are we waiting for, let’s get going!” Mikey said, and was the first one to start climbing up the ladder, Raph following him closely behind.

“No wait, we need to talk about this!” Leo tried to argue, but the two just ignored him and kept climbing up. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Leo asked nervously from Don, looking towards the top of the building.

_What if the ladder collapses? What if there are security cameras up there?_

“Do you have any better options?” Donnie had walked to the ladder as well, but unlike the others, he had turned to look at his hesitant brother, waiting for his response. 

Leo had to admit that he didn’t, and that Don had good points. In a way, it would be better for them to go up there. They couldn’t be easily spotted from the streets. They would have great views. They would be able to move freely. But at the same time…

_What if a human does come up there for some reason? What if one of us falls down from the roof?_

He was the one responsible now. He would have to make the choice.

“...We’ll just have to be careful then,” Leo muttered, and climbed after his brothers, two of which had already disappeared from his line of sight. “Guys, wait for us!” he tried to yell to them, trying his best to keep the growing worry out of his voice, but once again received no answer.

By the time Leo had made it to the top of the building, the other three turtles had ran to the opposite end of the roof, leaning to the low brick wall, marvelling the sight opening before them.

“It looks even _more_ awesome than I imagined…” Mikey said in awe when Leo finally approached them.

“Don’t get too close to the edge, you could fall down,” Leo instructed, still painfully aware of the dangers of high places, even after surpassing his secret childhood fear.

“Don’t be a killjoy, there’s no way we could fall,” Raph replied, and as if Leo’s words had been a dare, he climbed up to stand on the wall he had been leaning to before. “See? Perfectly fine-”

Leo pulled him back down, his heart thumping wildly in his chest.

“ _Don’t_! I’m serious Raph, no fooling around this time!”

“Sheesh Leo, ya really have changed,” Raph said, annoyed, as he yanked his arm free from his brother's grasp. “Just relax a little, okay?”

_I’m trying to!_ Leo wanted to answer as Raph walked back to where their brothers were still standing, admiring the city. But the truth was that in situations like this Leo found relaxing impossible. Something in the way he used to think had changed when he became the leader of their little group. Everywhere he looked he saw potential dangers, things that could go wrong. And now it was _his_ duty to make sure that his brothers stayed as _far_ away from those dangers as possible.

Just the thought of something bad happening when Leo could have stopped it… It alone was enough to make him feel nauseous.

And that is exactly why Leo stayed further back and observed their surroundings while the others were running around the roof and enjoying the lights of New York to the fullest.

_What is that sound?_

_Is there someone standing by that window, can they see us?_

_What is the fastest escape route?_

_Is Mikey too loud, is he drawing attention to us?_

He couldn’t remember the last time he felt such relief as when it was time for them to head back home. When the manhole above them was shut once again, Leo finally felt like he was able to calm down his nerves for the first time within the last hour. He knew the sewers, and so did his brothers. They would be so much safer now.

“We should go tomorrow as well!” Mikey suggested. “We can just tell Master Splinter that we found some cool place in the sewers, he’ll never know we went topside!”

“I’m not sure if that’s a good ide-” Leo’s hesitation was swallowed by the loud, agreeing yells of Don and Raph, and he didn’t really have the heart to raise his voice just to make all that glee disappear. They would go up there again tomorrow night.

_Shell._

\---

The cycle repeated, evening after evening. The four of them would tell Splinter they were going to explore the sewers, but in reality they only did it to locate a different manhole every night, climbed through it to the streets of New York, and from there they took the fastest way to the rooftops.

Don, Mikey and Raph were acting like every trip were the first, all happy and excited. They absolutely loved the lights and the busy nature of the city.

Leo, on the other hand, felt heavier and heavier each time they were up there. He jumped at every single sound, resting his twitching hands on his katana whenever possible, his mind running through all the possible horrible scenarios of things that could happen.

He couldn’t trust a single thing up here.

And all the extra thinking, all the constant worrying… It was making him feel absolutely exhausted.

\---

It was the fifth night in a row that they went topside. They were further away from their home than ever before, and that thought alone was enough to make Leo more nervous than usual.

_Chattering echoing from the street below. Music from somewhere far on the left._

_Will that billboard give us enough cover so we won’t be seen from that building? Is that door to this roof locked?_

_Did something move over there? Oh, it’s just a bird._

“We should play a game,” Mikey suggested. “Like tag! There’s so much more space around here, you could actually run away instead of playing tricks.”

“Sounds like fun, Raph, you in?” Don asked, turning away from the edge of the roof to face his brother.

“We _already_ play that all the time, I don’t-”

“You’re it!” Mikey yelled and slapped Raph to his arm before running away from him with Don right on his heels.

“Hey!” the older turtle responded, before running after both of them.

“I’m not sure if that’s a good idea!” Leo tried to yell after the three, but none of them were listening. “Guys!”

“Oh c’mon, Leo,” Raph began, sounding annoyed, “just because ya don’t know how to have fun anymore doesn’t mean we shouldn’t!”

“It’s not that, I just think that it could be dangerous!”

“Dude, we have done this multiple times already!” Mikey reminded as he narrowly avoided Donnie’s reached out hand. “And nothing bad has happened!”

Leo swallowed. They weren’t listening to him - once again. Fine. Maybe nothing would really happen. But ‘maybe’ wasn’t enough for him to let his guard down even for a second.

_That’s a car door slamming shut somewhere._

_Are they being too loud again?_

_Is that AC-unit mounted well enough? It won’t fall down on top of them, right?_

_Yelling and footsteps from behind that door-_

_Wait._

“Guys!” Leo yelled to get the attention of his brothers. “I think someone’s coming!”

No one even glanced at him. The voices were coming closer and closer, Leo was certain about that.

_We’ll be seen._

“I’m serious, we gotta go!” he tried again, eyes darting between the fire escape and the other turtles.

“ _Seriously?_ ” Raph had finally stopped, and was now glaring at his older brother. “Why would _anyone_ come up here? Just forget ‘bout it, you-”

The sound of a creaky door got the attention of all four turtles. They automatically turned towards the only door leading up to the roof before freezing.

Three young men had stumbled through the doorway, talking and laughing loudly, carrying more bottles than seemed humanly possible. An unpleasant smell was emerging from them, strong enough for even Leo, who had been standing as far away from the door as possible, to smell.

The men finally realized that unlike they had thought, they weren’t alone.

“Yo, who let you kids up here?” one of them slurred, pointing at the turtles with a shaky finger. Not one of the four brothers dared to answer. 

Leo’s mind was racing. This was it, the bad thing had happened, now it was up to him to save the situation. But his mind was completely blank, his instincts had totally failed him. This was their end, they had been seen, they would never be safe again, they-

“And what’s with the costumes?” another man asked, leaning on to the doorway to stay upright. “It’s nowhere near Halloween you know!”

_Costumes..?_

They still had a chance.

Leo’s mind cleared from its fogginess, every fiber of his being screaming a simple command.

“RUN!” he forwarded the message to his brothers, and bolted towards the fire escape, the stairs they had used earlier that night to climb up to the roof. He could hardly hear the sneering yells of the men over his own thumping heart and the footsteps of the other turtles following close-by.

“Yeah, you better run, you weirdos!”

Leo urged the others to get down first before running after them, skipping steps as they all hurried towards the ground level. By the time he was down there, the manhole near the stairs was already open, and while a part of Leo’s mind told him that there was a possibility that the men from the roof would be able to see the four of them go down, he didn’t care. The sewers were _safe_.

“I _told_ you! Someone did come!” Leo panted when the hole was closed again and the turtles were standing together, trying to catch their breaths. “I told you…”

They didn’t belong up there. That world was dangerous and hostile.

This was the last straw. Leo had had enough.

The next day he would do the right thing. Something he should have done many nights ago.

\---

“Sensei… I have a confession to make,” Leo said the next day as he approached his father. Master Splinter had been silently meditating in the corner of the room, but opened his eyes as Leo sat down to the floor in front of him.

“What is it, my son?”

Leo’s eyes were glued to his clenched fists resting on his thighs as he tried to think of a way to express his feelings.

“I… I don’t think I’m suitable for being the leader.”

“What makes you say that?” Leo was able to hear the surprise in the rat’s voice. Leo couldn’t really blame him, the turtle had been overly excited about his leadership only a couple of weeks ago.

“It’s… I don’t think I can handle it. I’m constantly on edge, I feel like I can see _everything_ around me, and… I’m afraid, sensei. I fear for the others, I fear that if I don’t see that everything, if I don’t predict everything that could happen and prevent it then something _will_ happen and it- It makes me feel so… heavy. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain, but it’s taking its toll on me. It’s like… my mind is working overtime, _all_ the time, and it’s making me feel exhausted, I-”

“Leonardo, let me ask you. Have you had these feelings before?” Splinter cut off Leo’s blabbering, once again sounding as calm as ever. Hearing something that contradicted so heavily with how Leo was feeling right then made him finally raise his head and look at his father.

“I- no, and that’s exactly why I think-”

Splinter raised his hand, signalling Leo to stay silent and listen.

“It is not necessarily a bad thing to feel like that, Leonardo, although I understand it might feel overwhelming at first. The responsibility resting on your shoulders is something you have not experienced before, it would have surprised me more if you had not felt this way.”

“But sensei, I-”

“Those feelings are your newly found instincts of a leader,” Splinter continued as if there had been no interruption. “The fear keeps you aware of the situation you are in. And that awareness helps you evaluate each situation better, which in turn helps you to make the right decisions when it comes to the wellbeing of your team. With more experience, I believe you will overcome this obstacle, and these feelings will no longer feel bothersome, they will become guiding tools.”

Leo’s feelings weren’t any less conflicted than before. Maybe that was visible on his face, since Splinter’s expression softened slightly.

“Do you know why you were selected to be the leader?” Splinter asked, gently.

“Because of my skills?” Leo suggested, thinking it was rather obvious. He had aced every singles test Splinter had put him and his brothers through, that is why he had been selected.

“Yes, but there is also another reason,” Splinter explained. “It is because you care. You care about your family. And no, I do not mean that your brothers do not care. But you value the ones closest to you differently, in a way that makes me trust that when you lead your brothers, all four of my sons will always safely return to me as well.”

Leo swallowed. He still definitely did not feel like he deserved this role.

“...There is something else. We- I have directly disobeyed you. We have gone topside, _multiple_ times. I couldn’t stop the others, they- I thought that if I went with them, I could make sure that nothing bad happened, but… someone saw us last night. I failed, I couldn’t make the others listen, I didn’t stand my ground, and three people saw us. I’m sorry.”

This confession seemed to make Splinter think about what he had said more closely, and Leo slowly turned his gaze back to his hands.

“You all still returned home safely, correct?”

“We did. They seemed to think we were humans in costumes.”

“Then, what exactly have you failed?”

“We got seen because I wasn’t a good enough leader, I-”

“Is that truly so?”

Leo once again faced the rat, but his father wasn’t looking at Leo. He was looking at something behind the turtle. Leo turned around, only to see his brothers, eavesdropping the conversation.

How long had they been there?

“Um, I don’t think it’s Leo’s fault,” Don answered, looking bashful over the fact they had gotten caught.

“Yeah, he said we should leave, way before the door opened,” Mikey agreed. “We just didn’t listen.”

“I think that was mainly me,” Raph muttered quietly, looking away. “...Sorry.”

Splinter waived his hand, inviting the three turtles to sit down on the floor next to Leo.

“I am aware of your… little adventures out of the sewers,” Splinter told once they were all sitting comfortably. “And while I am unpleased, I am aware that you grow and become more curious about the world around you, and I cannot protect you from it forever. I have not confronted you, hoping all of you to learn a valuable lesson. Which it seems you did.”

Oh. They should have guessed.

“Leonardo, you have learnt what it is like to be a leader. You have gained experience, which will help you on your way forward. Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo, you have learnt to listen to what your brother has to say. More often than not, there is a very good reason for his orders. You all still have a lot to learn, but this is a step to the right direction."

"Yes, sensei," the four turtles responded simultaneously.

"Leonardo, do you still believe that you are unsuitable to be the leader?"

Leo thought about it. He was still feeling all the tiring emotions from before, they hadn't disappeared during the conversation. But he was starting to learn to accept them. He could rise above them, control them instead of them controlling him.

Maybe with time, he would even start enjoying going topside.

"No," Leo finally answered. "I think I can do it. I just need to learn to be more confident, maybe then I will be easier to follow."

"Dude, I don't think you have to worry about that for a while," Mikey said. "After last night, I will do _whatever_ you tell me to do."

"...Like, bring me a soda, right now?"

"Whoa, let's not get _too_ excited!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** ~~Do I smell a rushed fic with a side of OoC-characters? I think I might.~~
> 
> Hey, you reading this, I just wanted to say thank you for stopping by and giving these fics a chance. Whether this is the first time you came here, or you have been coming back daily, it means a lot to me that you're here.
> 
> Uh, anyway, next fic tomorrow!


	17. Broken Hearts

19 - BROKEN HEARTS  
grief | mourning loved one | **survivor’s guilt**

Donatello-centric  
687 words  
 _Same As It Never Was_ -AU where Don never made it back to his own time

\---

The park was quiet that morning, when Donatello stood alone in front of the four graves belonging to his family. Gently, laid down flowers on each of them before slowly sitting down on the ground. He wasn’t sure what he would even do, but Don felt the need to stay with them for a little while.

“Hey guys,” he said quietly, weakly smiling to the simple graves.

It had been exactly one year since Don had been taken away from his own time to this… future. One year since he found out that Master Splinter had died. One year since he had gathered his old, estranged brothers for one more battle against the Shredder. One year since Don had won.

One year since his brothers had died, right in front of his eyes.

Mikey, Leo, Raph, all of them, in hopes for the better future for humanity, had blindly trusted that Don would be able to pull off his plan to finally take down the Shredder.

He just wished his brothers would have been at least able to see them win. That they would have at least known that their deaths weren’t in vain. The world had been saved, they were all _heroes_. They had been the necessary sacrifice. The sacrifice Don hadn’t been willing to pay. It made the victory feel nothing more than bittersweet.

Don tried to swallow, but the lump in his throat made it impossible. Not a day passed by when he didn’t miss them. Everyone else seemed to be able to move on, even April, but not Don.

“I uh… I wanted to tell you about the progress I’ve made,” he began once he was able to get a better hold of himself. “The machine itself is pretty much done now. But I’m still missing the power core, something that could _actually_ be powerful enough to… What I’m saying is that it doesn’t work the way it’s intended. Yet. But it will, don’t you worry about it, I won’t give up until it does.”

Don could almost hear in his mind what his family would respond, but he tried his best to ignore those voices. He knew from experience that it would just make this even more painful.

“So… don’t worry. I know… it was my fault. Everything happened because I was gone. But I’ll fix it, I swear. I’ll go back, I’ll make sure that _none_ of this ever happens. I won’t let our family fall apart, not like this.”

Wiping away the warm tears that had managed to escape his eyes, Don stood up once again.

“I should go, I have a lot of work to do. April said she’d drop by at some point, but the whole city’s celebrating, I don’t know when she’ll have the time. I…” Don hesitated for a second. “I love you all. I never… I should have said it more while I still could. But when I go back, when I make things right again, I’ll…”

_Will I really be able to return?_ that little voice inside of his head that Don _hated_ whispered. This future had already happened because he had disappeared, didn’t that mean that it was a set point in time, something that he wouldn’t be able to change? Don refused to believe that for even a second. There _had_ to be a way.

He was pulled back to reality when he heard more and more voices echoing from the distance. More time had passed than Don had thought, it wasn’t an early morning anymore.

“...I have to go now.” Every time he visited, Don felt like he wanted to stay forever, just sit there on the ground. He had no one left. These graves were all he had anymore. But every single time, he would force himself to look away, turn and leave. That is what he did now as well, left the park with a heavy heart as it was slowly filling with more and more people, ready to celebrate their second chance of life until the nightfall.

After all, it seemed like it would be a beautiful day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** Next prompt will be up tomorrow!


	18. Toto, I Have A Feeling We're Not In Texas Anymore

20 - TOTO, I HAVE A FEELING WE'RE NOT IN TEXAS ANYMORE  
lost | field medicine | **medieval**

Raphael-centric  
1 298 words

\---

The next time Raphael saw Renet he would _kill_ her.

Well. Maybe ‘kill’ is too strong of a word.

He would just seriously maim her.

At this point he had no idea how on Earth he didn’t have the common sense to run away whenever she appeared. The apprentice Timestress _clearly_ had no idea what she was supposed to do, only using the Time Sceptre to fool around. How was it even _possible_ for her to accidentally open a portal somewhere and _not_ go through it herself?

At least he wasn’t the only one missing that necessary amount of common sense.

“They’re gainin’ on us!” he yelled to the three shells running just a couple of feets away from him.

“Just run!” Donatello yelled, turning his head just enough to glance behind him. “I told you already, it would be too risky to attack them, we could mess up something!”

“I think they’re gonna mess up _us_!” Michelangelo pointed out.

“We just have to try and lose them somehow!” Leonardo instructed and looked around them, desperately trying to find some sort of cover.

“There’s nothin’ but fields though!” Raph yelled back at him, looking behind him again.

Who would have thought that a stupid caricature of an angry mob consisting of villagers chasing you with pitchforks and torches would be _this_ scary? 

Maybe they were just extra angry now. It seemed like people didn’t really accept anyone who was different any better in the Middle Age than in the present.

“There's a wall in front of us!” Leo suddenly pointed out. “We can try and climb over it!”

“Well let’s hurry _up_ , it’s still gonna take us time boostin’ each other up!”

Step by step, as they got closer to the wall, it grew in size, ending up towering over them, the top way too high to reach.

“I don’t think we can climb over this,” Don announced, sounding nervous. “It’s way too smooth, there’s nothing we could grab on.”

“So what are we gonna do?!” Mikey turned around to look at the quickly approaching mob. “We’re basically surrounded, and we can’t fight our way out!”

“...I think we just need to surrender,” Leo said quietly. “Maybe they’ll be willing to listen.”

“We have cornered them!” a villager at the front of the crowd yelled as they closed in on the turtles. “We have cornered the demons!”

“Yeah, I have a _really_ good feelin’ ‘bout this…” Raph muttered sarcastically.

\---

Why was Raph the only one who got put into a _frigging_ cage?

So what if he had resisted a little more than his brothers? This didn’t feel fair. Even if the others didn’t seem too comfortable either, each shackled to their own pillory.

The crowd of villagers who had chased them earlier were now spread around on the edges of the town square, staring and pointing at the turtles, whispering to their hearts’ content about the demons they had managed to catch. The man that had been in the front lines of the mob stepped forward, radiating confidence, now wearing a large hat. Raph figured he was probably some sort of a leader, mayor or whatever equivalent they had in this town.

“People!” the man spoke calmly, talking directly towards the townspeople who had gathered to see the captives. “We have now captured the demons that have come to haunt our humble town once again! These foul creatures, servants of Allatou, thought they would be capable of walking in our midst, but their green skin and monstrous appearance betrayed them!”

“Hey!” Mikey protested, but not one person paid any attention to him, too captivated by the man’s words.

“Hear me now, demons!” The man turned towards the turtles, dramatically pointing at them. “I command you to leave our humble town, and abandon these manifested bodies, return to Allatou and never plague us again!”

“We’ve told you already!” Leo tried to get the attention of the man. “We’re _not_ demons! Just let us go, we will stop bothering you!”

The man turned towards the oldest turtle now, disgust obvious on his face.

“We shall not listen to your _lies_! If we let you go, you would just continue your taunting!”

Raph narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t quite sure what the man actually wanted them to do. If they weren’t going to let the turtles go, how were they supposed to leave? Was the man expecting them to disappear into thin air?

Whatever it was, it wasn’t happening, and the man was getting tired of waiting.

“Since you are not willing to do as I command, I shall banish you myself, just like the others of your kind before you!” he huffed in anger.

“Wait, what do you mean by ‘our kind’?” Don asked, visibly confused.

“Your fellow demons who have been taunting our town for the last three weeks! And now you shall join them back to where you came from. Take the first one to the well.”

“Wait, hang on!” Raph’s cage was suddenly lifted off the ground before he had time to properly take in what the man had just said. “Put me back down!” 

But unsurprisingly, the group of men did not listen. Instead they followed their leader away from the town square, leaving Raph unable to do anything else than listen to the yells of his brothers, still echoing from the town square as Raph was carried away.

Part of the crowd from the square followed them, yelling sneers as Raph was carried to one of the fields the turtles had run past earlier, towards something that looked like an abnormally large well. Next to it was some sort of an installation, a wooden pulley system. The cage hit the ground, when the men carrying it let go. The action, definitely not gentle, made Raph stumble and fall.

“Now, demon,” the man with the hat continued, “I will give you one last chance to leave before I force you to.”

“I _would_ leave if ya just lemme go!” Raph gnarled. “Look, I’m aware we look like weirdos to ya, but this is goin’ a tiny bit overboard.”

“Still unwilling to cooperate?” The man shook his head, disappointed. “Very well. Drop him into the holy water.”

“Huh?” The men around Raph’s cage were moving again, this time attaching hooks and ropes to it. One of them was standing by the pulley, seemingly waiting for orders. Only seconds later the man leading the operation nodded, and the man by the pulley pushed its levers and lifted the cage up, much higher than what the men had been able to lift. Slowly, the cage moved until it was aligned with the dark, gaping hole of the well.

“No, don’t-” Raph tried to yell, but his cage was already plummeting towards the unseeable bottom. Raph tried his best to fill his lungs with air when the cage hit the water with incredible force, before it sank below the surface.

_They have a well full of holy water?! How’s that even possible?_

The water wasn’t something Raph was worried about. After all, he was a turtle, he could survive underwater longer than anyone would expect him to. But he did worry about what would happen once he was pulled back up, and the humans would see him, still alive and well. If they thought he was a demon now…

But even more than that, he was worried about the temperature. The water in the well was much, much colder than what Raph had expected. He was already freezing, every movement required more effort than before.

He had no idea how long he could survive before his body would completely shut down.

Raph _really_ would have to stay away from Renet from this point forward.

If there was a point forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** I did _way_ too much research for such a short fic. At least I now know a lot about demons in the Middle Age.
> 
> Extra shoutout to my friend Jay. Absolutely the best beta ever. It's really late here rn, I basically procrastinated the whole day instead of writing and she was still willing to go through this so I could get this out ~~yesterday~~ today. She's the greatest ever.
> 
> And **no** fic tomorrow, I put prompt 21 together with 28 so that'll be up a little bit later. Next one will be up on the 22nd.


	19. Do These Tacos Taste Funny To You? + I Think I'll Just Collapse Right Here, Thanks

22 - DO THESE TACOS TASTE FUNNY TO YOU? + 25 I THINK I’LL JUST COLLAPSE RIGHT HERE, THANKS  
 **poisoned** | drugged | withdrawal + disorientation | **blurred vision** | ringing ears

Michelangelo-centric  
776 words

\---

“Hey, does my face look funny to you?”

“What do ya mean, of _course_ it does.”

“Very funny. No, Raph, I’m serious, could you just take a look?”

“It looks normal to-” Raphael had looked up from his magazine, ready to convince Michelangelo that there was in fact nothing wrong with his face, but then he actually looked at him. “Whoa, what’s that around yer mouth?”

“So it _isn’t_ just my imagination,” Mikey said with a huff. “I dunno, my face was feeling kinda sore so I went to check and got greeted with _this._ ”

He raised his hand to gently touch the reddish, clearly irritated skin. The rash had appeared suddenly, completely out of nowhere, and it was quite frankly making him worry a little.

Raph kept staring, narrowing his eyes a little.

“Have you been eatin’ somethin’ weird?” he asked. 

Mikey stopped to think, trying to remember what exactly he had eaten during the day. The light pain in his stomach was telling him that whatever it had been, it might not have been as good as he had thought.

“Nothing I wouldn’t usually eat. I think…” Mikey pondered for a while longer before snapping his fingers. “Oh! April and Casey brough take-away with them earlier today! It was from that new place, right? Maybe they used something unusual. Why?”

“‘Cause my first guess of whatever’s goin’ on with ya would be an allergic reaction.”

“I guess it has to be, can’t think of anything else,” Mikey agreed hesitantly. His stomach squirmed uncomfortably again. “Although... is it normal to feel nauseous? Like, _seriously_ so?”

Raph’s silence and uncharacteristically worried look was enough of an answer to Mikey.

“...Donnie?” the youngest turtle called out to his other brother, even more unnerved about his well being than before talking to Raph.

“Yeah?” Donatello answered from the other side of the room, turning to look towards the two other turtles.

“Is feeling nauseous a normal allergic reaction?”

The surprising question seemed to take Don aback.

“Uh, I think it is. It’s not among the most common reactions, I think, but definitely not something unheard of,” he explained regardless.

“See? Problem solved!” Raph said, satisfied by the answer, and continued reading his magazine. “Told ya you’re just allergic to somethin’.”

“Are you really?” Don said, sounding almost as confused about the information as Mikey felt himself. “You haven’t reacted to anything before though...”

“I know but look at my face!”

Mikey walked to where Don was sitting, pointing at his face as if the difference to its normal state wouldn’t have been incredibly obvious. Don blinked a couple of times, taking in the view.

“Oh wow, that _does_ look bad,” he admitted. “What could you be allergic to though? Have you recently eaten anything you haven’t before?”

“Don’t think so. We ate those tacos April and Casey brought over earlier but like, they’re tacos! Nothing new about those!” A new wave of nausea travelled through Mikey’s body, this time much stronger than the ones before. “Ugh, I gotta sit down, I think it _was_ the tacos, and they’re trying to fight back.”

He walked to the nearest chair, surprised by the wobble that made the task much more difficult. Once seated, Mikey buried his face to his hands, trying his best to tolerate the nausea and pain.

“Is it really _that_ bad?” Don asked, sounding much more worried than before. “Are you breathing okay?”

“Huh?” Mike only vaguely registered the question. He was too distracted by the ever growing pain in his stomach, trying his best not to throw up. Although it felt like it could still happen at any point. All the concentration was making his mind dizzy.

“Mikey?” Don’s voice asked, much closer than it had been just a minute earlier. Mikey slowly lifted his head from his hands and turned to look at the other turtle. Had Donnie always looked so fuzzy?

“Yeah?”

“You don’t seem to be doing so well. Maybe you should go lie down for a while?” Don suggested gently. The interaction had gotten Raph’s full attention again - Mikey could hear him close his magazine and head their way.

Mikey couldn’t see it though. He was hardly able to see anything. 

His face felt like it was burning.

“I guess so. I dunno, I just… I just… J’st...” The slurred speech coming out of his mouth was the last straw for Mikey. He definitely wasn’t okay. He was about to say it aloud too, but the blurriness of his vision overtook him.

“MIKEY!” two very familiar voices yelled, but Mikey didn’t hear it, he had already collapsed right to Donatello’s waiting arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** Fun fact of the day: tomato leaves are poisonous for (some) turtles, but are completely edible for humans!
> 
> I was originally going to have this and prompt 25 separate, but I was struggling with 25 and it went a little bit too well with this one, so I decided to combine them together the last second. So sorry, one less fic for you.
> 
> Also, there'll be another day off tomorrow! Prompt 23 was used back on the 18th. I'll be back on the 24th!


	20. You're Not Making Any Sense

24 - YOU'RE NOT MAKING ANY SENSE  
forced mutism | blindfolded | **sensory deprivation**

Raphael-centric  
974 words  
Connects to prompt 27

\---

Why couldn’t Raphael feel _anything_?

Not the coldness of the metallic operating table he had woken up on. Not the pain that Raph was sure his body was in. Not the floor under his feet as he stumbled away from the empty room. Absolutely _nothing_.

It had been less than five minutes but it was already driving him insane.

What did Bishop _do_?

The man’s face was the last thing, the only thing he could remember at that moment. The cold, calm expression on his face as the sedative he had given Raph had taken over. Raph couldn’t even remember when or how he had been caught. Had he been the only one? By the time that thought crossed his mind he had managed to get out, standing right next to the building, looking back at it.

He couldn’t go back in. Not like this. He would have to return home, and hopefully find the rest of his family there. _Safe_.

There he could hopefully find a cure for his current condition too. There had to be _something_ that could be done. Donnie would figure it out. He always did. Raph would be back to normal in no time.

Trying his best to concentrate on the calming thought, Raph failed to realize how suspicious it was that there had been no one to stop him from escaping.

The sewers. He needed to get to the sewers.

Raph walked forward, feeling like he was floating instead of actually moving his limbs. Every other step he almost fell down, unable to tell whether or not the moves were steady unless he was looking at his feet. 

Regardless, he felt like it was nothing short of a miracle when he finally made it to the sewer entrance. He practically fell on his knees right next to it, reaching out to open his access.

He had lifted manhole covers dozens of times in his life but it had never felt this unfamiliar, not even the very first time. The disoriented feeling only got worse when Raph looked down at his hands. He had been trying to get a hold of the edge, but couldn’t feel it. He was completely unable to get a proper grip to actually move the cover out of the way.

“Screw this,” he mumbled to himself, moving his hand to reach for his sai. With one of them, he could pry the cover open, it would be much easier than-

When he was holding a sai in his hand, he froze without even realizing it. His eyes locked to the hand that didn’t feel like his.

When he held his sai in his hand, he would feel a wave of familiarity, _of power_ that had made him feel practically unstoppable. This had been the _one thing_ he could always rely on. But now… 

There was absolutely nothing. He couldn’t feel the weight of the weapon, the soft fabric wrapped around the handle, the coolness that was still radiating through it… _Nothing_.

He swallowed and let his gaze move from the hand holding the sai. He managed to lift the cover off with the weapon instead, and slipped through the hole to the sewer.

He would have to get home.

Raph was vaguely aware that it took him much longer than usual to get to their secret entrance. What he _really_ did notice was how difficult it was to open, making him feel incredibly frustrated. He was _so_ close, practically home already, but this _one_ obstacle was draining the very last drops of his energy.

He _hated_ this. _So_ much.

When he finally got the door open, he literally fell through it.

Frigging perfect.

“Raph? Is that you?” a voice echoed from somewhere inside. Good, at least someone was home.

“Could I get a little help here?” Raph yelled as an answer, trying his best to get back up but failed miserably. Soon Donatello appeared behind the corner, surprised by the view that greeted him.

“What happened? Where have you been?” he asked, while helping Raph back up to his feet.

“Bishop,” Raph gnarled, which seemed to be enough of an explanation. Don’s expression immediately changed into a more worried one.

“What did he do?”

“I have no idea!” Raph admitted, frustration clear in his voice, and staggered to the closest seat he saw. “I woke up from his weird lab without even rememberin’ how I got there, feelin’ nothin’!”

“What do you mean ‘nothing’?” Don questioned, looking confused. Raph managed to sit down upwards, but it felt like he was still standing up.

“Nothin’! I can’t feel my body, I can’t feel anythin’ _touchin’_ my body, _nothin’_!”

“...Are you serious?”

“Well what do ya think?!”

“Okay, okay, calm down! I’ll try to figure out something, uh…”

Raph looked at his younger brother, feeling just as lost as he looked. What on Earth could they do to fix this?

Don wandered off, probably trying to think about their options, but Raph remained seated, too wrapped up in his inner turmoil to even consider getting up again. 

Everything was so wrong. Raph hadn’t even realised how much _feeling_ actually affected his life. But now that it was all gone… Nothing seemed to work normally anymore.

He raised his hand and clenched it to a fist. _Nothing_. How- what had happened to him? What if there really was no way to fix it? He clenched harder without even realizing it. What if-

Oh.

There was no doubt. As dull as it felt, he had definitely felt _something_ this time. Raph had felt the smallest amount of pressure on his hand. And that pressure was spreading around his body, gathering wherever his body was touching the seat.

Whatever had happened to him was passing. Which only made Raph think about one thing.

What exactly had Bishop’s plan been?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** The plot thickens. Kinda. Something's gonna happen on the 27th.
> 
> No fic tomorrow, 25 was put together with 22 in panic earlier. But hey, after tomorrow there will be no days off, I'll be back on the 26th!


	21. If You Thought The Head Trauma Was Bad...

26 - IF YOU THOUGHT THE HEAD TRAUMA WAS BAD...  
 **migraine** | concussion | blindness

Donatello-centric  
733 words

\---

Donatello pressed the pillow harder against his head, desperate for any sort of comfort for the intense pain.

It had been an hour since the headache started and Don had escaped the sounds of the lair to his own bed. Yet, it only felt like the pain was getting worse, and absolutely nothing seemed to help.

Not the darkness, not the quiet, not the strong painkiller he had taken long before he had deemed the headache to be worth a rest.

Not one thing.

It was intolerable.

A soft knock on Don’s closed door distracted him from his throbbing head just a little.

“Yeah?” he called out, face pressed against the mattress, and heard the door open.

“Hi Donnie,” a quiet voice greeted. The door was silently closed behind the speaker, and soft footsteps approached the bed. “How are you doing?”

“Mikey?” Don asked and dared to peek from under his pillow. It was indeed Michelangelo, carrying a tray with food and a pot of tea.

“Yeah, Master Splinter thought that you should try and eat something. If you can hold it down, that is.”

“I think I can,” Don estimated, and slowly sat up, trying his best not to move his head too much in fear that a sudden move would make his head throb even more. “I haven’t really felt like vomiting this time around.”

“So it hasn’t really gotten any better, huh?” Mikey asked with a sympathetic tone as he sat next to Don on his brother's bed. Don almost shook his head as an answer, but realized at the last second that it might not be the best thing to do in his current condition.

“No,” he answered instead. “It’s weird though, it feels like the pain has concentrated somewhere behind my left eye and radiates to my forehead from there. I don’t know, usually the headaches I have are more all over the place.”

“Maybe you just have your mask on too tight,” Mikey suggested, only half-joking. Don couldn’t help but chuckle a little.

“Maybe. I’ll take it off after I have eaten a little.” He reached out to the plate that had been filled for him, and carefully started nibbling the food.

“You want me to bring you another painkiller?” Mikey asked after a while. This time Don did forget not to shake his head, and the simple motion made him grimace.

“No, I don’t think it’s helping. At all. Which is weird too, normally painkillers help me even with more intense aches within a relatively small time period. Besides, I don’t think I could safely take another strong dose anyway.”

Mikey hummed as a response. A comfortable silence fell into the room, and Donnie really appreciated the quiet company. He kept eating regardless of not being hungry, hoping that the sustenance would make him feel better sooner.

But as soon as his plate was empty, the need to lay down felt even stronger than it had before. Mikey seemed to catch how Don was feeling too, and got up from the bed.

“I’ll just take these away then,” he said and took the tray once again. “You want me to leave the pot?”

“No thanks, I think I’ve had enough,” Don mumbled as he carefully laid back down.

“Gotcha. Just give me a yell if you want anything else, okay? I’ll be your personal butler until you feel better.”

Don smiled at the comment.

“Yeah, I will. Thanks, I appreciate it.”

With nothing more than a nod, Mikey left the room, trying to be just as quiet as he had been when he entered.

Don sighed and rubbed his forehead. For some reason it felt like the pain was moving, heading from the left eye towards the right one. It made no sense to him. He untied his purple mask and placed it gently on a table near his bed. Maybe that really would help.

The throbbing was slowly getting worse. Don squeezed his eyes shut again, trying his best to focus on anything else than the pain, but the distraction wouldn’t work for too long. Another wave of intense pain would always bring him back to the insufferable reality.

There was nothing more for him to do than wait.

Little did he know, it would still take another hour for the headache to finally calm down.

Only for it to return back the next day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** I can't believe that I legit had a bad headache today too.
> 
> Hi I'm here again, and will be until the end of this month! No more days off! That means that I'll be here tomorrow again. Hooray?


	22. Ok, Who Had Natural Disasters on Their 2020 Bingo Card?

27 - OK, WHO HAD NATURAL DISASTERS ON THEIR 2020 BINGO CARD?  
earthquake | extreme weather | **power outage**

773 words  
This ~~loosely~~ connects to prompt 24

\---

_WHUM._

All of a sudden the lair was sent to darkness, the only source of light being the glowing symbols on the walls.

“Everybody stay still,” Leonardo ordered the second the lights had gone out. He looked around, trying to locate where everyone was, and was met with four pairs of vigilant eyes.

Everyone was on high alert, and ready for action.

“Donnie, I thought ya said that a power outage wouldn’t affect the lair,” Raphael said, slowly reaching for his sai.

“I did,” Donatello answered, “I have installed extra power sources, even if the power would be cut off from the city, we would still be fine for _days_.”

“And since I don’t think that we would have _all_ missed a massive blackout, it doesn’t really make sense here anyway. And _that_ means…” Michelangelo began, spinning his nunchucks on a high speed.

“We have been found,” Master Splinter finished the sentence.

They had all been thinking that already, but saying it aloud made it actually real. Everyone tensed even more.

“Don, can you get anything from any of the alarms you have set?” Leo asked. “It would help a lot if we knew where they are coming from.”

“No, the alarms all use electricity, meaning they are all out as well,” Don admitted. “Clearly I’ll have to work on alternatives when this is over.”

“Should we maybe whisper?” Mikey said, somehow mimicking whispering while not whispering at all.

“Think it’s too late for that, they already know we’re here,” Raph murmured as an answer.

“Who do you think it is? The Foot?” Don wondered, silently moving towards the center of the lair.

“No idea, just be ready for _anything_ ,” Leo cautioned, trying his best to keep an eye on every possible entrance at the same time.

“I believe all we can do now,” Splinter said, gathering them all to the center, “is to wait until our intruders reveal themselves.”

The family of five were all standing together now, backs against each other, everyone looking at a different direction. One of them would _have_ to be able to spot the invaders, hopefully before it was too late. 

Minutes passed, and the intensity of the situation didn’t die down at all. If anything, the constant waiting made it worse.

What were the attackers waiting for?

The silence continued for nearly ten minutes. No one dared to move a muscle, fearing that the moment they did they would miss a crucial clue needed to figure out what was going on.

Then finally.

The northern wall of their home exploded, sending debris flying through the air to every direction. The chunks were almost impossible to see due the massive cloud of dust emerging from the gaping hole that had appeared on the side of the lair.

Coughing, the mutants tried to see through the cloud. Soon the dust settled, revealing a discouraging sight.

A group of men, no, an _army_ of men was flooding in through the hole, spreading evenly around the lair, guns ready and every single one pointing towards the family still trying to grasp the situation.

“I have you now,” said a cold voice coming from the middle of the army before a familiar figure emerged from the masses.

Bishop.

“You are surrounded, with dozens of weapons aimed at your heads,” the man said, walking forward so that he was standing in front of the wall of men. “Even one wrong move, and it will surely be your last.”

“How did you find us?” Splinter asked, eyes darting between Bishop and the guns around them. The smallest of smiles flickered on Bishop’s face.

“For that you must thank Raphael. Thanks to the… distraction I had provided, he was too preoccupied to even consider that I could have planted a tracker into him.”

“A tracker?” Raph repeated, having a hard time accepting the new information.

When he had woken up last week, feeling nothing... Had it all been just a distraction so he wouldn’t realize what had _really_ happened to him? It had clearly worked - the thought had never crossed his mind. Not even when he had been able to just walk out of the building freely. He had just rushed straight to home.

In the process, he had led Bishop straight to his family.

A familiar mixture of anger and guilt drowned every other emotion Raph had been feeling before, but there was nothing he could do at the moment. He would be full of lead before he had time to even properly raise his sai.

“Now then, gentlemen, let’s proceed with the containment,” Bishop ordered, and his men followed, closing in on the mutants.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** Kinda just slapped a new ending on this one after I realised that I could. Sorry if it's weird because of that.
> 
> Anyways, I'll be back tomorrow!


	23. I Don't Feel So Well + Such Wow. Very Normal. Many Oops.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Grammar disclaimer: Both me and my beta Jay were _very_ tired while going through this. Serious grammatical mistakes are possible if not likely. You have been warned.

21 - I DON’T FEEL SO WELL + 28 SUCH WOW. MANY NORMAL. VERY OOPS.  
chronic pain | **hypothermia** | infection + accidents | **hunting season** | mugged

2 617 words  
Michelangelo and Donatello centric  
Based on S1E20 _The Monster Hunter_ , canon divergence

\---

Maybe it hadn’t been the best idea to go back to the snowy forest so quickly after being locked into the freezing trailer after all, since Michelangelo could have sworn that he had _not_ felt this cold earlier that day. His limbs were feeling numb already as he was waiting in the tree, in the middle of the night.

But then again, they didn’t really have a choice. They _had_ to make Dr. Abigail Finn leave. Somehow.

Waiting on a tree branch for the woman to return was slowly making him second guess the amazing plan he had come up with. Maybe he should have at _least_ left the suit on. It had been nicely warm, definitely something his body was yearning for after the _minor_ case of hypothermia.

Minor. Definitely minor.

“Parker! Confirm capture!” A yell broke the silence of the forest. Mikey couldn’t help but smile to himself, as he located the loud woman running through the woods.

“Finally!” he mumbled as he jumped down from the tree, waiting for Dr. Finn to get just a little closer in the safety of the shadows of the dark forest.

It sounded like the woman had got some good news. She was laughing now, so focused on her call that she completely missed Mikey rolling over the path right in front of her and poking out his leg, effectively sending her face first to the snow with her tranquilizer gun. He swiftly moved back to the shadows when Dr. Finn got back up, suspicious of her surroundings. 

It was time for the real fun to begin.

As Dr. Finn took out her flashlight and looked around, Mikey ran around her, being intentionally more noisy than what would normally be suitable for a ninja. The sounds caught the attention of the hunter and she turned around, pointing her flashlight to the bush that Mikey had just ran past.

Now he got her attention. Next it was time to get rid of the gun.

The turtle silently climbed back to the tree he had inhabited earlier, and watched Dr. Finn walk forward, passing under the branch he was sitting on. He saw his chance and swooped down, just low enough to grab the tranquilizer right out of the woman’s hands.

“No!” she yelled and tried to reach for the gun, but she wasn’t able to grab it anymore. She backed away, eyes darting widely around her.

This felt almost too easy.

“Parker,” Dr. Finn whispered to her earpiece, sounding much less confident than a little while ago. “Parker, there’s another one out here, with me. Hunting me! Do you copy?!”

Mikey grinned. The plan really was working.

It seemed like the woman was getting no answer. She was desperately trying to press the earpiece deeper into her ear, maybe hoping that it would help her to hear whatever her partner was saying better, but by the fearful look on her face Mikey was able to conclude that she was all alone now.

Mikey looked at the gun still in his hands and considered his options. While the thought of giving the doctor a taste of her own medicine sounded tempting, he decided against it. Instead he hit the gun to his knee hard enough to break it before throwing the unusable gun back to the ground, right at the woman’s feet.

“No!” Dr. Finn yelled again and glanced up where the gun had come from, but Mikey had already moved to another tree. He was now behind the woman, sticking his foot to a tree branch so he was able to hang upside down. Waiting, _hoping_ that this part of the plan would actually work.

“This can’t be happening,” the woman said to herself and backed away from the gun before turning around to face Mikey, who was still hidden in the shadows.

Perfect.

“Boo!” Mikey yelled, effectively startling Dr. Finn, who made a turn and ran away from him. She even tripped on her way, crawling away somewhere that Mikey could no longer see.

_Mission accomplished_ , Mikey thought as he jumped back down from the tree, chuckling to himself.

“A ninja a day keeps the doctor away,” he joked proudly and turned around to leave as well. But then he screamed.

“Donnie!” he exclaimed as he recognized his brother. “Where’s the big green dude?”

“Relax Mikey,” the older turtle said, smiling at the reaction. “It’s all taken care-”

A gunshot interrupted Donatello’s sentence. Mikey immediately turned towards where the sound had come from, just in time to see Dr. Finn running away with something that looked like a small handgun. Had she had a second gun with her?

“Huh, well that was weird-” he started and turned to face Don again, only to see the other turtle holding tight to his left shoulder, a shocked expression on his face, blood sprouting from under his fingers. “Donnie?!”

“I…Mikey I think I just got shot. For the first time in my life,” the older turtle stuttered, eyes wide but not focused on anything. “She… huh.”

“Dude, let me see,” Mikey requested, unsure if he really wanted to see it at all. But he would have to. Right? He had to see, surely it couldn’t be that bad, just a scratch, there’s no way that-

As he reached his hand forward, Don stepped further away from him.

“No! We need- _I_ need to keep pressure on it,” he explained. Donnie’s voice was calm, but the stumbling over his words made it obvious that it couldn’t be further from the truth. “The bullet, it could have hit an artery, if I let go I might bleed out, I- I have to keep pressure on it, I-”

This whole situation felt unreal for Mikey. There was no way that Donnie had gotten shot. No way. But the previously pure white snow underneath Donatello’s feet was steadily gaining deep red blotches as the streams of blood were falling off the turtle.

Mikey swallowed.

“Is there anything we can do? There must be, like, some sort of first-aid, or-”

Don’s nervous, almost hysterical laugh interrupted Mike’s sentence.

“Mikey, we’re in the middle of the woods! We have nothing! I don’t have my bag with me, we can’t do anything! I don’t think we could make bangades out of our belts either, not that we could wrap them in an effective way in the first place. So here I am, bleeding out in a forest from a _gunshot_ wound, I- I can’t believe this is happening,” Don rambled, finally turning to look at his hand on his shoulder. “There is so much blood, Mikey, I- there is so _much_ , what-”

“Donnie, dude, you gotta calm down,” Mikey heard himself say. He could see his brother was slowly drifting towards panic, and as much as he felt like heading down that road as well, he knew that one of them had to stay at least relatively calm. And since Donnie- It felt like it would be fair for Mikey to be the one keeping it together. 

Or at least, the one closest to keeping it together.

“We gotta get back to the farmhouse,” he announced and approached Don once again. He wasn’t stopped this time, since Don himself was too focused on the sight of his bleeding shoulder and on keeping his trembling legs under control. Mikey carefully placed his own shaky hand on Don’s uninjured shoulder. “C’mon, it’s better we get there _fast_. And it’s pretty far away.”

“U-huh. Yeah. Fast. We need to go. This way,” Donatello turned around and started to walk in the direction that Mikey knew to be the right one, thanks to all his previous exploration in the forest. But once Mikey saw his brother from behind, his legs refused to move to follow him as he barely managed to hold in another scream.

“Do-Donnie- wait!”

Somewhere the rational part of Michelangelo’s brain thought that seeing the exit wound of the bullet was a good thing. That it meant that the bullet wasn’t stuck somewhere inside of his brother and there would be no need to worry about needing some sort of surgery. But all that was subdued by the gruesome sight in front of him.

Mikey couldn’t really even tell how small the hole actually was. It was glistering with all the blood leaking from it, looking almost pitch black in the center due to the dim lighting of the moon. The hole was barely above Don’s plastron, and the bullet had in fact been so close to it that it had ripped away a part of the shell on its way out. The hole was allowing the blood to pour over the plastron itself, and the liquid was slowly flowing forward, running down the grooves of the shell, staining the belt Don had wrapped around himself deeper brown than before, the blood oozing through it and eventually making its way to the edge of the plastron from where it dribbled steadily on the snow.

Every single gruesome detail was carved into Mikey’s mind as he just stood there, unable to tear his eyes away. He already knew that this was one of those things he could never forget, one of those sights that would haunt his nightmares for the rest of his life.

He had been right. It _would_ have been better if he hadn’t seen the wound.

“You- you’re bleeding from your back too,” Mikey managed to say.

“There is an exit wound?” Don tried to look over his shoulder to see the damage himself but couldn’t. “That- that needs pressure too, it has been bleeding freely this _whole_ time, I-” Don glanced helplessly at his hands, fully aware that he couldn’t bend them in a way that would help with the situation.

A shiver that had nothing to do with the coldness of the forest ran through Mikey. He knew what he would have to do - and he did not like it.

“I’ll hold it,” he announced and before Don had time to say anything, Mikey was already standing on the right side of his brother, reaching his arm behind Don’s neck so he could press the palm of his hand against the warm and sticky, still bleeding wound as hard as he could. Mikey shivered again, but tried his best not to focus on the feeling too much.

“Okay, okay, now we just gotta move forward. _Carefully_ ,” he instructed before taking the first steps, gently pushing Don forward with the arm that was on the other turtle’s back.

They didn’t talk at all as they walked through the forest towards the snowy forest, leaving behind footprints and a trail of blood, splatters clear as day against the white ground. Mikey knew that it couldn’t be a good thing, Dr. Finn was still somewhere in the forest, but what else could he do?

Donnie was his priority now. Mikey could worry about the splatters once he knew that his brother would be taken care of.

“Hey, uh, stupid question,” Mikey started. “How are you feeling?”

Don walked silently forward for a moment, considering what to say.

“I… It hurts. I think the adrenaline is starting to wear off, and I’m… It hurts.” When he took the next step forward, he stumbled. “...I’m also getting weaker. Mikey, look at all the blood, I have lost so much. I’m feeling dizzy already, walking requires so much effort, it’s getting cold, really cold…”

Donatello went quiet again, face morphing into a more painful expression. Not painful in a way that showed what the turtle was experiencing. 

It was painful for Michelangelo to look at.

“Mikey…” Don started with a shaky voice. “I think… I think I might di-”

“Nope!” Mike interrupted immediately. “Nope, I won’t hear it. You’re not gonna- We’re half-way there. We’ll get you to the farmhouse, and you’ll be back in tip-top shape in no time! So just keep dragging those feet forward, you’ll be fine.”

Mikey didn’t receive an answer, but he thought that maybe it was better that way. He didn’t exactly feel like arguing about the chances of Don’s survival. He himself refused to even _consider_ that- No. It wouldn’t happen. But Don himself seemed to be certain that he would meet his demise. That thought, combined with the fear and the feel of the blood all over his hand… It was making Mikey nauseous.

Their movement had gotten slower. Don was staggering with every step he took now, and Mikey couldn’t help but notice that while his brother was still bleeding, the blood wasn’t sprouting out of him as heavily as before. He just hoped that it was a good thing.

“Look!” Mikey pointed at something shining through the woods with his free hand, finally daring to feel hopeful. “The farmhouse! I can see light coming from its windows, dude, we’re almost there!”

“Huh?” Don lifted his gaze from his feet. “Really?”

“Yeah, see, I told you would make it-”

Don’s legs kept buckling underneath him more than before, and he nearly fell down, but Mike was able to catch him before his body hit the snow. Even though they were standing still now, Donatello was panting more heavily than before.

“Donnie?!”

“I- I don’t- I can’t,” Don stuttered.

“You _can_ ,” Mikey said, desperation slipping into his voice. They were so close… “C’mon, step by step, you can do it!”

Mikey was now practically forcing his brother to move forward, and Don bravely took another step, only to stumble once again. This time he fell all the way to his knees, breathing heavily, leaning to a tree right next to him.

“No, Mikey, I- I’m so tired, it’s so warm- I-”

“Warm? You’re sitting in the snow and you’re feeling _warm_?” Mikey questioned, the worry inside of him growing more and more. Don feeling warm couldn’t be good, Mikey himself was _freezing_.

He didn’t have it in him to force his brother back to his feet, and instead he helped him to lean on the tree trunk better. But Mikey knew that they couldn’t just stay there either, otherwise Don could-

“HELP!” Mikey turned his head towards the farmhouse and yelled. “GUYS! WE NEED HELP HERE!”

“You think… they heard?” Don’s quiet voice made Mikey turn back towards the other turtle, only to see his eyelids drooping.

Absolute panic took over Mikey.

“Donnie?! Don, dude, you gotta listen to me, talk to me! You gotta stay awake now, I’m sure they heard, they’re on their way here already and you’re gonna get the help you need! Okay? Okay?! Donnie you _need_ to look at me!”

He could hear the sounds of multiple footsteps, running towards the two of them. Good, they had heard him.

“See? The others are coming! You’re gonna get help, you’re gonna be fine! Donnie, Donnie look at me, please! Don’t you close those eyes man, you need to keep them open for just a little while longer, it’s gonna be fine, you’re gonna be back to normal in no time! Don? Donnie?!”

Don’s eyes closed once more, but this time he didn’t open them again. His mouth was moving, muttering something incomprehensible, still pressing his hand against his shoulder. Tears had started to leak out of Mikey’s eyes without him realising it as he was still trying to get his brother’s attention.

The footsteps were almost right behind him now, he could hear them approaching faster and faster, joined by voices demanding to know what was going on, what had happened. Mikey couldn’t answer them though, shaking his now completely unmoving brother, still screaming Donatello’s name as the bloody hand of the unconscious turtle fell limply onto his lap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** ~~I find Mikey to be the hardest one to write so if he seems super OoC then I'm sorry.~~
> 
> It's still the 28th somewhere in the States, right? Sorry, had more to do yesterday than I thought, this is the soonest I was able to post this. It was super late when Jay and I went through this so _please_ , you spot any mistake that we missed please point it out so I can fix it.
> 
> Jay is the best ever. I have nothing more to say about that.
> 
> Only a couple more stories to go. Next one will be up rather soon, I just need to sleep for a little while first.


	24. I Think We Need A Doctor

29 - I THINK WE NEED A DOCTOR  
intubation | emergency room | **reluctant bedrest**

448 words  
Leonardo and Raphael centric  
Loosely connects back to the prompts 7 and 9, this is basically happening the day after the events of those two

\---

The last night had been really rough for them all, but they were starting to feel better. Leonardo was particularly ready to move on already, despite all the bandages wrapped around him and the great amount of pain that his body was experiencing.

He was quietly trying to sneak out the room he had been resting in, but got caught in the middle of the process.

“How many times do I have to tell you to just stay in bed? Donnie’s just gonna come back naggin’ for the fifth time today.”

Leo sighed and turned to look at Raphael who had been sleeping in the other bed close to his, although currently the other turtle was glaring at him rather angrily.

“I told you already, I can’t just lay around doing _nothing_ ,” Leo explained, although he did walk back to his bed, unwilling to fight.

“Well I’m not happy about this either, but Donnie’s got a point, we’ll heal faster if we just do what he says.”

“I know, I know…”

The two turtles had been put to the same bedroom since it would both be easier to look after them, and nicer for the two of them to have some company while stuck in bed. It was hard to tell which one of them hated it more, Raph who just couldn’t bear to do nothing, or Leo who wasn’t willing to let himself rest any more than what was absolutely necessary.

“How are you feeling?” Leo asked Raph as he was settling back down to his bed. The other turtle huffed.

“What do ya think? Not _good_ ,” Raph answered, carefully picking at his bandages. “Could be worse I guess.”

Leo hummed quietly as a response, staring at his younger brother.

“Sorry you had to go through that,” he said quietly, turning his eyes to his hands instead. The other turtle glanced at him quickly before turning away as well.

“It was my decision, and I don’t regret it,” Raph stated simply. “Had to try and buy as much time as possible.”

This time Leo didn’t respond at all, just kept looking at his hands instead.

“Stop that.”

Raph’s sharp voice got Leo’s attention, and he finally lifted his gaze to his brother.

“Huh?”

“I know that look,” Raph told, looking at Leo. “You’re blamin’ yourself over this. Stop that. So what if ya were down, I’d do it a million times again if it meant- You’re not the only one who cares ‘bout this family.”

The heartwarming confession took Leo by surprise, and as Raph turned his face away from the leader again, body language radiating embarrassment, Leo couldn’t help but smile.

“I know, Raph, I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** I can't believe there are only two more fics left before Whumptober is over. Time flies.
> 
> I'll be back tomorrow!


	25. Now Where Did That Come From?

30 - NOW WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?  
wound reveal | **ignoring an injury** | internal organ injury

Splinter-centric  
557 words  
Based on the 2003-series' origin story

\--

It felt almost like a miracle that his tiny body didn’t break when he had fallen down after letting go of the windowsill. Maybe he had even hoped that it would. Splinter wasn’t quite sure. But he couldn’t look at the mangled body of his Master Yoshi anymore.

So there he was. Lying in the puddle, unwilling to move, body hurting almost as much as the thought of losing his Master.

But he couldn’t stay. He was a simple rat, he would be an easy prey. He would have to move on. Splinter lifted his body off the ground with great effort, and headed towards to find a place to hide and recover.

\---

He couldn’t just do nothing. These young turtles needed help. They were washed down to the sewers, covered in some sort of goo… They couldn’t make it on their own.

Even though Splinter’s back was still aching from the fall that had taken place a few days earlier, he lifted and cleaned the turtles, one by one, before gently placing them in an empty coffee can. He would take them to his new hideout, he would take care of them, at least for now.

\---

Something was… off. Splinter knew it before he even opened his eyes. His body felt different. It was… bigger? Somehow… more complex? And the pain. His back felt much worse than it had before he had fallen asleep.

But more importantly, he could feel a different kind of pain in his chest. Heaviness that he hadn’t felt before. It made him think about his Master Yoshi, and how he had lost him.

Splinter had never experienced _anything_ like this before. What was happening?

A tap to his nose distracted him from his thoughts, and Splinter opened his eyes in surprise. The turtles. The four small turtles had grown overnight, at least double the size they had been. They were all looking at him, almost like they were expecting something to happen.

_How can a turtle look like_ that _?_ Splinter found himself wondering, mesmerized by how much more expressive they were now.

Something else in Splinter’s field of view got his attention. HIs paws, his hands… They were the size of a human’s. What… Had he grown as well?

Splinter had pushed himself upwards so that he wasn't lying down anymore, and the position was making his back ache even worse. His eyes drifted back to the turtles, still looking at _him_ , following Splinter’s every movement. 

Something… abnormal had happened to all five of them, that was for sure. But there was still one thing that hadn’t changed. These turtles were helpless, they didn’t know how to survive in this world like Splinter did. They needed his help, now even more than before, they couldn’t be returned to humans anymore.

Splinter would have to raise them. He would take care of them, just like Master Yoshi-

The pain Splinter had experienced in his chest before had returned, more intense than before. That was… sadness. He was mourning. It was something new, something he hadn’t quite felt when he had been just a normal rat.

But he would have to push it aside. He would have to push aside the pain, both in his chest and his back. The turtles would become his priority now.

He could worry about himself sometime later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** Can you believe tomorrow will be the last day of Whumptober? I can't. I don't think tomorrow's fic is one of my favourites, but I'm excited regardless.
> 
> So yeah, I'll be back tomorrow again, I hope you will too!


	26. Today's Special: Torture

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **A/N:** When I started this I did _not_ expect to wrote over 30k word for this little project.
> 
> Since this is the last day I want to start this by saying to everyone who has been reading these prompts that I have written, no matter if you read just one or if you read them all - thank you. It means a lot to me.
> 
> Secondly, there's someone who deserves special thanks. My dear friend Jay, who has been betaing every single story here, she did absolutely amazing job making these all so much more readable than they would have otherwise been. In addition to that, she has been such a huge support throughout this whole project, I'm like, 97% sure I would have already given up at some point without her encouraging. Thank you so much, I think that at this point you already know how much I appreciate you tolerating me, but I'm still gonna say that it's a lot.
> 
> That's it for now, so enjoy (?) reading!

31 - TODAY'S SPECIAL: TORTURE  
experiment | whipped | **left for dead**

1 792 words  
Leonardo-centric

\---

It had been over half an hour since the portal had appeared in the lair, and Usagi had jumped through it.

_“Where is Leonardo?” he had asked, without any explanation to why he had arrived. The samurai was always hard to read, but something in the way he was looking around in the lair immediately alarmed everyone._

_“He went out a little while ago,” Donatello had answered him, everyone else still gathering to see the sudden visitor. “Why?”_

_“Kojima has escaped.”_

_Those were the only words needed. The mutants could still remember very clearly the last time they had seen Usagi, and the deadly assassin from his world who had appeared soon after._

_Michelangelo had reached his Shell Cell, and tried to call their missing leader._

_“I can’t get through,” the turtle had soon announced. The atmosphere changed into one of worry and anxiousness._

_“We just gotta find him in some other way,” Raphael had told them. The turtles, Master Splinter and Usagi split up and left the lair without another word._

So far they had found nothing. And they feared they were running out of time.

\---

Leonardo couldn’t help but stare as the portal disappeared after Kojima walked through it. How the assassin had escaped after Usagi and Gen had taken him with them the last time, he didn’t know. Probably would never know.

Leo took a deep, raspy breath as he turned to face the sky above him. It was a shame that he couldn’t see the stars from all the lights of the city. It would have been so much nicer to look at them, now that he was lying there in the ever growing pool of his own blood. Now all he could see was the… cold, empty darkness.

\---

“Wait I’ve got the signal again!” Don informed everyone through the earpiece. “I think he’s the closest to where we are, come here. Quickly, I- I don’t think he’s moving.”

Don glanced at Usagi who he had paired up with. The samurai was looking at the small screen Don was holding, trying his best to understand its blinking lights, in hopes of getting more information.

“ _Master Splinter and I are close by, we’ll be there in a sec_ ,” Mikey told Don.

“ _Yeah, I’ll turn around and get there too_ ,” Raph confirmed. Don could hear the engine of his bike roar, as he undoubtedly tried to once again drive much faster than what was legal or safe.

“Which direction do we need to go?” Usagi asked, giving up his attempts to understand the device.

“The signal’s coming from South of here. I’m hoping that it’s only his phone though, otherwise it could mean that…” Don didn’t have to finish the sentence, they knew what it could mean. They were both looking towards the South, anxiously hoping for the others to arrive, sooner rather than later.

\---

Leo knew he should have been in great amounts of pain right now. Kojima had been ruthless and well prepared this time, and no matter how hard Leo had tried his best to fight back, he had quickly lost the count of the stab wounds. He had been defeated. He only wished that Lord Hebe would be satisfied now, Leo wouldn’t have to worry about Kojima going after his family and friends when he…

He coughed, blood splashing out of his mouth. Leo vaguely wondered if he should try and reach for his phone, maybe he could call the others, he should at least tell them what was happening to him, where they could find him, that it… it was too late already. But he didn’t have enough energy to move, not at all. He was just… exhausted.

They would eventually find his body. He was sure of it, but it would have been nice to offer them at least some sort of explanation of what had happened. Or that in the end, he hadn’t felt any pain, that he had felt peaceful. Isn’t that what everyone hoped for their loved ones?

\---

“I’ll try to call him again," Mikey decided while they were all flying across the rooftops towards the direction Don was leading them to. No one said anything as he dialed Leo's number again. "...It’s ringing this time, but he's still not answering."

"Do not hang up," Master Splinter ordered. He wasn't feeling particularly hopeful, but at least it was _something_. Mikey obliged regardless, clinging onto that something as well.

"When did that bastard escape?" Raph asked Usagi.

"...I do not know," the samurai confessed. "But I arrived here as soon as I heard."

"So technically, Kojima could be here already," Don concluded and swallowed. “It means…"

"...It is for the best that we do not stop," Splinter said gloomly.

\---

What was that sound he was hearing? Was it _actually_ his phone, or was he just imagining it now, after thinking about calling? It would be so easy to check, but his hand refused to move. And so he just listened to the sound, weirdly finding some comfort in it.

He blinked slowly, and once Leo opened his eyes again, after a great amount of effort, he noticed that everything around him was much blurrier than it had been before. He didn’t have much time left. Maybe it was better that way. He coughed again, more violently than before. Leo could feel more blood streaking down his chin, and for a second he considered wiping it away, but decided against it. He would be a gruesome sight in any case, there was no way he could make it better for the others, no matter how much he wished to do so.

\---

“I think I can see him. LEO!” Raph who had been running in the lead suddenly yelled.

"Really?! Where is he, what's going on?" Mikey questioned, immediately putting away his Cell. Don followed suit with his tracker screen, hastily stuffing the device into his bag.  
What Raph assumed to be Leo was still multiple rooftops away from the one they were currently on, but when he tried to look closer, his heart sank.

"It's him," he confirmed. "But it ain't lookin' good."

"Is he-" Splinter started with a shaky voice, unable to finish the sentence.

"...I can't tell."

\---

The sound of the phone had finally stopped, making Leo think that it must have actually been his Shell Cell. He could hear more sounds now though, multiple sounds, but he couldn’t quite make out what they were. Gathering all the remaining energy he had, he turned his head towards the voices. Even though his sight was too hazy to see clearly anymore, he could see shapes and colors, somewhere in the distance, although they seemed to be coming closer and closer. Did Leo hear his own name, echoing from the green shapes? Was it his brothers?

The smallest of smiles made it to Leo’s lips. They had found him sooner than he had thought. Of course they did. He couldn’t help but feel proud. He had always been proud of them, his amazing brothers.

\---

“He's alive!" Raph told the others, finding new energy from the hope he was now feeling. "I saw him move! LEO!"

"Can you see Kojima anywhere?" Usagi asked.

"No," Don, who was now also able to see the worrying sight, answered. "Why?"

"...It could mean that he has already left." The worry that had been evident in everyone else's speech had finally made it to Usagi's voice as well.

Don glanced behind him where Master Splinter was. What was awaiting them… it wasn't pretty.

"Sensei, I'm not sure if you want to see-"

"No," the rat sternly interrupted. "My son needs me."

\---

Leo closed his eyes again, just to blink, but once they were shut the yelling seemed to intensify, which encouraged him to open his eyes sooner than he otherwise would have. Fine, fine, he would do what the others wanted. He didn’t want to leave them without any effort, even if he knew that fighting back at this point was useless.

The shapes were closer now, and Leo could make out new colors alongside all the green. Gray and brown, only a little bit behind the others. That must have been Master Splinter, his father. If he was with the others, had they known something was wrong? How? A white and blue figure appeared in Leo’s line of sight. Oh. Usagi. He must have come to warn them. Leo appreciated the effort, even if it had been in vain.

\---

Step by step, more gruesome details were revealed to the group. All the hope they had felt at one point was steadily disappearing.

"Why isn't he answering us? LEO!" Mikey wasn't quite sure what he was hoping to accomplish by yelling, but for him it was better than just taking in the details of the scene he was approaching.

“Guys, if he closes his eyes- I- he _has_ to keep them open!” Don was starting to sound desperate, alarming everyone else more and more. Raph sped up his pace, not caring about his aching muscles, way ahead of everyone else now. Maybe there was still time.

\---

Leo could make out individual voices now. Michelangelo was yelling his name, Donatello was telling him to keep his eyes open, Raphael was saying they were almost there, that Leo should hang on. And Leo wanted to answer them, tell them that he was sorry, but couldn’t make any sound that wasn’t just gargling.

Even when he tried to fight back this time, Leo’s eyes closed on their own, and this time he couldn’t make them open again. He could hear all the yells, he could even hear the footsteps now, but they were all so very faint, so distant. Leo wondered if Master Yoshi was going to be welcoming him to the other side, he hoped he could finally meet the man he had heard so many stories about.

\---

The blood. It was all over the roof. The signs of a fight were enough to tell them the full story of what had happened when they finally stepped on to the roof they had been trying to reach for so long. Not that anyone was willing to take a closer look.

“I’ll get to ‘im, I’ll get to 'im!” Raph yelled, mere feets away from Leo now. He absolutely refused to look at the mangled body of his brother.

\---

Everything around Leo was fading. Someone was really close by, he could hear them, he could almost feel them as someone fell to their knees next to him and tried to shake his body. But only almost.

"You're fine, you're fine, I've got ya!" Those were the last panicked words Leo heard before he drifted into the blackness.

\---

Leonardo didn’t move anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** That was it. That was the last one. It's officially over now. Wow.
> 
> I hope you found at least _something_ you enjoyed. Did you have a favourite? Is there a fic that you thought needed a secodn chapter, if not a full story? I'd love to know, I'm definitely willing to continue some of the more vague stories after finishing some other projects first.
> 
> Once again a huuuuge thank you for reading! AND, I hope you had a great and safe Halloween!
> 
> Now excuse me, it's past 6AM on the first of November, I need some sleep...

**Author's Note:**

>  **A/N:** First one down, 26 more to go (yes, there are a bunch more prompts that I have put together). Next one will be here tomorrow at some point!
> 
> If you want to leave a comment (maybe you spotted a mistake, which is highly possible since I'm not a native English speaker, or you thought that something was terrible, or maybe you even enjoyed reading), it would be highly appreciated. I have noticed that I'm the worst when it comes to responding to them ~~because they make me nervous~~ , but I do read and appreciate all of them.
> 
> See you tomorrow...


End file.
